Alex Dobrenko

The cornerstone of a Weird Internet Career is that you a) make a thing on the internet that people value and b) provide a way to convert that value into money. (If you have the first but not the second, it’s not a career, at least not yet. If you have the second but not the first, well, you probably don’t have much in the way of career yet either.)

But we also hoard ideas because if one suddenly succeeds, then we suddenly have to live up to the idea. A good idea alone is not terribly hard to come up with. But a break-through good idea, one that really hits and starts to spread, where many people want to know more... Well, suddenly that’s just another test, a test where you could very well... See more

The first thing to do is keep silent—to abolish audiences and learn to be your own judge. To keep a balance between an active concern for the body and an attentive awareness of being alive. To give up all feeling that the world owes you a living and devote yourself to achieving two kinds of freedom: freedom from money and freedom from your own... See more

Again, I’m picking on Scott for reasons. The same is true of every other essayist I love. Sam Kriss at his best provides catharsis; at his worst, a sense of jaded superiority. Ted Gioia at his best makes me fall in love with art and music as if for the first time; at his worst, like I’m part of a small culturally-literate elite in a crumbling... See more