Amateurs & Dilettantes

Personally, I have my doubts that we will ever live in a society where you can make a middle-class living from long essays about ‘the New Yorker story’. So then...what does it mean to just accept that there’s no money in this?

Well, I think it means that we have to achieve sustainability through other means. In my case that means writing primarily... See more

With the New Yorker piece I was determined to do as much research as I needed to. But then I faced the opposite problem. At some point I was doing so much research, so much reading, that it felt impossible to bring it together.

Thankfully, I am now proud to be part of a very different tradition—the fanzine tradition—that I think will play an increasingly important role in the twenty-first century.

The academic style has many adherents, and many people find it impressive. I find it to be impressive myself. But...there is room in the world for other approaches.

My main innovation, and really the source of all my success, is that I eschew authority. I don’t pretend to be someone who’s an expert on the things that I write about. You all are very... See more