Pseudonyms Lets You Practice Agency

Identities are interfaces. They mediate between your interiority and the outside world. Each identity provides a set of affordances—things they allow you to do. If you have access to the identity “cop,” you can do and say things that others can’t.

Pseudonyms are a social technology with a deep history.

When people email me saying they want to publish their writing but feel insecure about it, this is my first suggestion: invent a character who is not afraid, one who can say all the things you can’t. Play it. See what it’s like. If you make a fool of yourself, you can erase the character and make a new one.

An interesting reply I sometimes get is th... See more

I do admire people who are unapologetically themselves in public. That is a gift. If you have the courage to be authentic while showing your face, that helps widen the Overton window of weirdness. You make it less scary for others to do the same; you make the world more alive and human. But if you can’t do that, like most people can’t, if you feel ... See more