Dave Winer, an Appropriate Name
People that are big into blogging will recognize Dave Winer as a hugely important figure. However, like many great people, he suffers from an ego problem.
Wired ran an interview by Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing fame with Adam Curry, famous for various reasons, but currently because of the wildly popular Daily Source Code podcast.
In response to which, Dave Winer threw a fit. You know when people are taking the mature approach to an issue when they say things like:
At some point he’s going to need some friends, and then I’m going to kick him in the ass, and then look him in the eye and say “Shouldn’t have lied so much, dickhead.”
Lovely and eloquent. The last time I called someone a dickhead was… let me check my calendar… 3rd grade?
Adam took the ball and ran with it in his latest podcast. Needless to say, it was a slam dunk. Xeni even tried to placate Dave. She clarified (as Adam did as well) that Adam did give Dave credit, but it simply got cut due to article focus and length. It was nothing nefarious.
Better than leave it alone, Dave felt compelled to respond again. The complete lack of maturity on his part is simply astounding. It’s hard to believe that someone so instrumental in the blogging and podcasting communities can’t check his ego at the door and look at things for what they really are.
Anyway, Adam does take credit for work he didn’t do. You might want to check on that Xeni, it might be more interesting than the cookie-cutter bullshit puff piece you just wrote.
Rather than substantiating his claim about Adam being a glory hog (pot, meet kettle), he decides to take a cheap shot at Xeni. In fact, he seems to completely drop his original beef that Adam was taking all the credit in the interview. That’s telling.
Edit: Let’s not forget him throwing another fit at a lecture on civility. Yes, the irony is thick.
Yes Dave is a loose cannon but Adam should be straight with his positioning. Adam later addressed this. Xeni was doing her job and I agree. Dave is (or was) the podfather. Dave needs to take the chip off his shoulder and chill out at the same time he is the real podfather. More outbursts like that than no one wants that kind of podfather.
btw: dickhead was commonplace through elementary school back east…classic term
Yes indeed, classic.
Being a former Massachusetts resident and a graduate of my father’s alma mater just earned you a spot in my RSS reader.
The toxic egoism present in Dave Winer’s personality might be an inheritance from his uncle, the rabidly atheist Arno Schmidt.
Winer is not the Devil, but his erotic energy seems to be focused on himself, with toxic effects on his personal growth.
Some of Winer’s admirers seem to regard him as president of their own Egghead Republic, but I’m afraid he sees himself as the uber mensch.
Still, it’s wrongheaded to denigrate his actual accomplments.
Dave Winer should thank his uncle Arno Schmidt for bequeathing him the legacy of a template for weblogs in his novels, including the “Egghead Republic” and “Stoney Heart”.
“The Egghead Republic” is an allegory of sorts. It presents a Utopian vision and its anti-Utopia.
I wouldn’t waste time trying to interpret its symbology.
Brian Eno said,”…America is trapped in a fortress of arrogance and ignorance”.
Amen to that.
You might say that we Americans are living in the pre-nuclear holocaust Hominid Zone of the novel.
There are Centaurs all over the place: half-man and half-beast.
I would say, a Centaur can be ridden.
Where’s that last book?
Say thank you, Dave Winer.
Is Dave Winer a Polled Centaur? (Or does he just have holes in his head?)
In my more paranoid moments, I’ve imagined that Dave Winer was the deus ex machina behind Karl Rove, like the snake oil salesman behind a malevolent Wizard of Oz.
After three nights without sleep, it all made perfect sense:
Dave Winer could only be the Projectionist behind the False Image of the Beast, Mr. 666 Himself, the reconstituted Ronald Reagan.
Egad, what a nightmare!
Yes, I’ve been diagnosed as bi-polar, but I prefer the old-fashioned term: manic-depressive.
I have learned, however, to mitigate the depression that seemed to inevitably follow the ascent to the rapturous heights of the manic high.
All I have to do is look at that photo of Dave Winer in the steam bath, and it brings me back down to mundane reality:
Dave Winer has become his own uncle.