Interesting changes…
When I was a tech journalist (and who knows, once I need to pay rent again soon, it could happen again. But let’s hope not), i always read Dave Winer’s Scripting News site. In part because of what he wrote about, and it intersecting with my beat at the time, and also because as his own boss, Dave could give me a non-BS quote that was succinct. (Most companies give you marketing flunkies who take five lines to barely make a point).
Now that I no longer write about tech, or follow it too closely for that matter, I still read Dave’s site because I find him interesting. It is also surreal to watch these snarky debates arise about standards like OPML and stuff that, to be frank, I don’t even know what they do, or care to, really.
To me, the interesting thing about Dave is his drive. He seems to have had a passion that perfectly lined up with, and oftentimes drove, the way a lot of web technologies work today. It’s primarily under-the-hood stuff that end users will never link back to him, or care that there was passion and sweat behind it.
But he just pursues his passions with such gusto, not to mention that he strives to build communities offline as well as online. He arranges dinners around events he attends and has always been gracious to everyone down to the youngest newbie back when I would attend them on occassion.
He recently began talking about retirement from his tech pursuits and relentless blogging, and I was curious what the next thing would be, since no one with this much energy and drive is going to just watch Tivo and kick back.
Today, he wrote: "I’m thinking fiction might be fun. I’m thinking about dialog, and how a novel is a continuum, and a bunch of short stories hanging off a tree, and a few diversions to keep the reader on his or her toes. I’m thinking about the craft of writing in ways I’ve never done before."
After seeing that, I can’t wait for him to stop blogging. I think it sounds like an interesting path and would be very curious to see what he would do moving in that direction. It’s always refreshing to read about writing a novel as such a fun prospect, since I always seem to bring so much seriousness and mental anguish to things. Dave taught me a lot about technology, maybe I’ll learn something about creative writing from him as well. And, to be fair, he’ll probably blog about his writing, too. The more things change…
