I Was So Much Older Then, I’m Younger Than That Now…

Posted on March 29, 2005

Paolo Valdemarin: Blog Birthday.

I always find amazing to look back at what we were doing back in spring 2002. I was involved in much more conversations than I am today, there was a lot of enthusiasm about stuff like OPML, instantOutliners, RSS, espresso cups, blogging, intranets, Radio tools…

I know how he feels. This blog is actually about the same age as his (JWM turned three in January), and I’ve been going through the same things: finding myself more “diplomatic” in what I write, and lacking the inspiration to post anything over at my companion blog on social software, Ant’s Eye View, for more than 3 months now.

I don’t think this is a permanent state, though; rather it’s just that the world has spent the last 3 years digesting the stuff that we were all so excited about back in 2002. Back then, when I enthused to people about the potential of blogging and social software, they tended to look at me funny if they didn’t laugh out loud; now even those who laughed loudest have their own blogs. Tiny outfits like Ben & Mena Trott’s Six Apart and Ev Williams’ Blogger have become VC darlings and buyout targets of Silicon Valley giants.

In short, the revolution we were tasting in the air in 2002 has come and gone. And now its battlefields are busily being turned into tidy office parks and strip malls, which bores the shit out of those who are temperamentally inclined to revolution.

But, such is the way of all revolutions. And the revolutionaries like Paolo, being restless creative types, will eventually renew themselves and find new outlets — and we’ll start to detect the smell of gunpowder in the air again…