The Internet Is Where The Truth Is

Ordinarily I don't feel compelled to address my writing on other people's sites, but I wanted to concede something you said and defend something I said.

First, I understand the conflict you feel regarding getting laughs by attacking vs. praising. It's a conflict I experienced even while writing the piece, and I'm still not entirely sure where I sit with it. On the one hand, I respect that SXSW Interactive means a lot to a certain group of people. It's importance socially is at least as great as its importance professionally or creatively.

But—and maybe this didn't telegraph itself clearly enough, for which I take full responsibility—I'd hoped it was obvious that this piece was written from the perspective of someone who was very much an outsider to the event so, naturally, I'm going to have a much different perspective than a regular attendee. It was an alien environment for me so, obviously, the elements that seemed most profoundly absurd or foreign were the ones that stuck with me and made it into my writing.

Something else that might not have come across clearly enough for you to see past the article's "acerbic" tone or "cheap" laughs was that, while I made fun of some of the geekier elements of the conference (something I copped to in the story as possibly unnecessary), I also concluded that my judgment only served to keep me on the outside of everyone else's obvious enjoyment of themselves. That irony was not insignificant to me.

Anyway, like I said, I'm conflicted, too. I met some excellent, friendly people who I hope to see again. And I know those people really love coming to SXSW, which I completely understand and respect. But for me not to point out what I found a bit ridiculous about the conference would be, well, ridiculous. I appreciate your desire to see a very funny article about how great SXSW is, but for that I think you'd need a writer who was comfortably on the inside, rather than somewhat awkwardly on the outside.

>The Wall Street Journal alludes to Google's biggest weakness

How is this their biggest weakness? Giving people tips on how to game their system doesn't sound smart to me.

FWIW, Levin had some regrets about the tone of the piece as well, and has since revised it.

Re FGK: Wow - I've never seen so many people not get a joke in the same place. That's comedy! =-)

Yes, "FS," it's true––I'd already expressed whatever regrets I had and sent TMN a slightly revised version a couple days ago, before I read or responded to this post. I didn't think it was necessary to mention that in my comments here because I didn't want to give the false impression that my revisions were somehow a response to Anil's original post.

Instead, it was just something I did upon reflection, mostly after seeing other people's reactions. ("todd shits all over...etc."), Basically, I realized maybe in my rush to finish the piece, I'd employed a bulldozer to the festival, when an axe would have been sufficient.

About blogging evangelism, while I can't agree to the ethics of it, I don't fully understand the uproar.

A blog is, largely, just something any 'ol person decided to put on the internet. Shouldn't there be an obligatory caveat emptor?

How do you find these things? Apparently my Google-fu fails me.