I give up.

I give up on blogs about business and self-improvement and whatever else on the internet. It is a self-perpetuating bullshit machine and though I am here, writing alongside everyone else, I believe there's something better to be made of the internet than half-baked listicles.

I've spent too much time in a tizzy because of blog entries raving about something amazing! Life changing! World ending! …that the author just discovered a few days ago. “This changed my life!” they proclaim, after a whopping four days of eating raw onions for dinner. I wish I were joking when I say I've seen people “review” something after less than a day.

These articles get written to a) produce content (and audience and revenue) and to b) share whatever life-changing revelation.

I understand a. I need to make money. I want to be known in my field so I'm not always, always, always knocking on doors and making phone calls.

I also understand b. I remember the first day I ever rode my bicycle to work. I felt like a goddam superhero and you bet your buttons I wrote about it. I had a million years of energy, I actually liked my job, and all was right as right can be.

Riding my bike to work did change my life. I am confident in this assessment because it's been ten years since I started doing it. But days passed when I trudged to work in the rain on a slightly flat tire, up that goddam hill by my office, arriving late AND sweaty AND frustrated. (Little in this world is more sad than when something that is usually good is not good.)

A beginner is beautiful. Someone sharing their triumphs and mistakes is beautiful. A beginner pretending to be an expert so I'll sign up for the mailing list is ugly. And irresponsible.

So, I try not to. Even when my enthusiasm is up, and I feel so excited about the thing, I pledge to tell you what is working for me, how long I've been at it, and what sucks about it. Because clickbait is clogging up the internet. If I fail, please tell me. I think we all know somewhere inside when we're just regurgitating somebody else's idea, or pretending we found something new, but it's easy to lie to ourselves. Let's keep improving our internal bullshit detectors, yeah?

(I read a much longer and better piece on the subject about three hours after writing this. I guess I'm not alone, and maybe I should feel bad that I'm saying the same thing as other, more established people. But I don't, because this shit has been bugging me for at least six months.)