While I’d love to one day live in SF, some days I’m glad I’m not living in the silicon valley hub. Blogs are ablaze this morning with the news of some “a-list” blogger announcing his retirement. There seems to be an incredibly arrogant sense of importance amongst some bloggers who consider themselves A-List (Scoble, Calacanis, etc). They seem to think that everything they say or do matters to the grand scheme of things. I stopped reading Scoble when he wouldn’t shut up about how many people he had following him on twitter or friendfeed, and made a big fuss about how Facebook wouldn’t let him have more than 5000 friends. They don’t seem to realise that most people don’t use technology obsessively like they do. Most people don’t want more than 5000 friends as most people only friend their real friends, they don’t collect “friends” to look popular.
It’s quite scary and sad to see how much attention this whole stunt is getting (although I’m blogging about it too so I shouldn’t talk).
“Will you come out of retirement at some point?” Clark Kent, Daily Planet
No. Absolutely not. This is not a Michael Jordan or Jay-Z ploy. I’m done. It’s not over one instance, and it’s not because–give me a minute [editor's note: Calacanis looked down, fighting back his emotions]–I can’t handle the pressures of being an A-list blogger. This is a very personal choice that I’ve discussed with my family, and it’s the direction we want to go. I’ve done blogging and now it’s time for the next chapter.
Gosh, some dude decided he’s not going to blog anymore. He’s probably still on twitter, friendfeed, plaxo, myspace, email and everywhere else. And let’s not forget, this is the guy who said (later edited):
Fire people who are not workaholics…. come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. don’t work at a startup if you’re not into it–go work at the post office or stabucks if you want balance in your life. For realz.
I think anyone who would expect employees to work their guts out and not have any work-life balance, say “for realz” or allow themselves to be photographed looking self-important on a yellow velvet armchair holding a dog won’t be missed, at least by me.
This post is tagged under: random thoughts
Hey Chez, give him a break. Life is hard for us A-listers :P
Hey watch it there D-List Adams, I have a photo of you in a very similar armchair. Don’t make me post it :)
This post on the blogging elite got me thinking … does every human social group naturally create “superstars” that have to be disconnected from the rest?
Actors, athletes, politicians, TV broadcasters, business people … in each of these social groups, a handful rise to the top, a level where they are celebrities, watched by many but touched by few. Blogging is a relatively new social cluster, but since humans must idolize, it was natural that Scoble and crew would rise, because someone had to fit the slots.
In other words, human groups seem like strange magnets that push a small cluster of iron filings away from all the others.
The irony is that blogging/social media is supposed to be egalitarian, and this rise broke the ties between the top celebs and the people they try to connect with. I had to stop following Scoble due to his spray of Tweets every 2 seconds, and I’m reluctant to follow anyone who has 5,000+ contacts, because how can they possibly listen to me?
All being said, perhaps it’s not their fault. It’s just human nature that we push some select few to the top of a pedestal. We want heroes, and so we isolate them.
Ben - I can see your point but the “a-list” of bloggers seem to be (gross generalisation here) people that are pushing THEMSELVES to the top and screaming “I’m elite, I’m A-List” rather than the rest of us looking for idols.
I don’t know any A-list celebrities but I’m pretty sure most of them don’t spend every conversation saying “I’m so important, I’m so popular, I have XX many fans” (well, maybe Tom Cruise does), whereas most blog posts I’ve seen from those guys always have some sort of sense of self-importance.
I kind of think of those bloggers that consider themselves A list (scoble, calacanis, etc) as dweeby nerds in high school, then suddenly they got a bit cooler - they started working out, dressing better, with decent jobs and incomes etc - and now they need to tell everyone at every conversation about how cool they are; they seem to need that validation.
Take a look at at a Scoble post - “Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about Tech blogging and my role in it.”, “I started blogging because I wanted to share my life with you”, “I wanted to help other people discover these new things and understand how to use them best.” - it’s all so very self absorbed and self important.
So saying, there are some A-list blogs I love, such as Derek Powazek, Tara Hunt, etc because they don’t ever bang on about how important they are…