stevenberlinjohnson.com: In Which The Blogger Turns One

So yesterday, the 11th, was my one year bloggiversary. I raise a glass to all of you, dear readers, trackbackers, lurkers, and comment spammers. I couldn't have done it without you. (Actually, I could have done without the spam, but that's another story.) I'm more than a little pleased to find the blog continuing to percolate at its steady, if not exactly round-the-clock, pace. I'm a pretty driven person, but I've always been chronically hopeless at things like keeping journals. So the fact that the blog is still a big part of my life one year later is a pleasant surprise.

I suspect the most rewarding part of all of this will arrive ten or twenty years from now, reading through the archives in chronological order, making all the long-forgotten connections ("That's right -- we were just moving into the Brooklyn house when I came up with the idea for that book," etc.) Writing books and articles gives you a nice snapshot of where your head was at on the scale of months or years, but the blog gives you the week by week (and sometimes day by day) account: all the little trails you followed and then abandoned, or the half-formed ideas that lay fallow for a season before blossoming into something useful. You get a record not of your final, polished thoughts, but rather your hunches and dead-ends.

For those of you who missed the early days, here's my first post explaining the URL, and my second post explaining what I was hoping to get out of the blog. Both still apply.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of eight books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej68 at gmail dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

Comments

The one thing nice about bloggiversaries is that is an easy one to write ;)

Cheers,
Zack

Posted by: Zack Lynch | November 13, 2003 at 05:22 AM

Okay...here is your gift ;)

Brains For Sale...

In the hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where their family member lay gravely ill. Finally, the doctor came looking tired and somber. "I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news," he said as he surveyed the worried faces. "The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant. It's an experimental procedure, very risky but it is the only hope."

"Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the brain yourselves." The family members sat silent as they absorbed the news. After a great length of time, someone asked, "Well, how much does a brain cost?"

The doctor quickly responded, "$5,000 for a male brain, and $200 for a female brain." The moment turned awkward. Men in the room tried not to smile avoiding eye contact with the women, but some actually smirked. A man, unable to control his curiosity, blurted out the question everyone wanted to ask, "Why is the male brain so much more?" The doctor smiled at the childish innocence, and explained to the entire group, "It's just standard pricing procedure. We have to mark down the price of the female brains, because they've actually been USED!."

Posted by: Zack | November 13, 2003 at 05:42 AM

Congratulations, and thanks for the great blog. I've enjoyed the read, except for the spam ;).

Blog on.

Posted by: Richard Giles | November 13, 2003 at 08:11 AM

I've been a great admirer.... congrats!

Posted by: Chuck Olsen | November 14, 2003 at 05:18 AM

Keep up the good work :) It was a great day when I found your blog, I no longer miss FEED quite as much.

Posted by: reed | November 14, 2003 at 09:15 AM

I especially like how the comment spammers decided to respond to your one-year post by comment spamming your first post. Have you no respect?!?!?!

Anyway, keep up the good work!

Posted by: Anthony | November 16, 2003 at 12:39 PM

Will the archives still be there? Unless you keep some backup, I don't think so.

A good way for Blogger and such to make people upgrade would be to send them a annual cd with backup of the blogs. At least I'd buy one.

Posted by: Rodolfo S Filho | November 17, 2003 at 09:38 AM

Congratulations on the anniversary. You have one of the few blogs that I check on a regular basis and I am really looking forward to reading Mind Wide Open. I think one thing that is truly amazing is how much spam gets posted on your site. I've been on the web for years now and although I've seen this trend before on a few other sites, I have never seen anything close to the volume of crap that happens to get posted on your site. Go figure. Cheers!

Posted by: Dave | November 17, 2003 at 12:41 PM

Congratulations!

We're still getting started, and still trying to figure out exactly how to describe what we're up to (on entry #100, we took a stab at describing it - http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000106.html). So a year of quality blogging seems like something real to be proud of from where I'm sitting.

What have you learned about what works and what doesn't? What are you proud of, and what would you do more of - for that matter, what do you wish you did differently? If you were writing a modern Rilke, a Letters to a Young Blogger, what would you say?

Anyways, thanks for what you do. Can't wait to read the book...

Posted by: Alex Steffen | November 28, 2003 at 07:25 AM

11?? wow, congratulations !!!!! i can't see your first blog :(
The same... Congrats again!!

Posted by: diseño web | December 11, 2003 at 10:35 AM