A Web Developer in Winnipeg
Why aren’t there any blog posts about people who run a moderately successful side business? They’re never mega-successful, just pad bank accounts, help pay off debts, save for the future, take their families on vacations, whatever?
It seems a lot more attainable than the seemingly random stories of “The man who built a $1 billion firm in his basement“, etc.
Seriously, I wouldn’t mind some insight on that sort of thing.
What is it about the nature of The Internet that makes internet success seem so attainable?
Is it the open/egalitarian nature of the internet? Literally anyone can start an open source project, youtube channel, blog, store, whatever.
Is it the fact that, as developers, we know the inner workings of the tech behind the latest hotness? Theoretically we could build them ourselves, right?
Is it the humble and approach demeanor that internet-successful people need to maintain in order to become and grow their personal brands? Being able to tweet at (or email) someone with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers and getting a reply (sometimes in real time) is incredible.
A few years ago, I found out that a successful podcaster that I’d been following from her earliest days as a podcaster, actually has an agent helping her to land podcasting gigs. I really wonder how often comparable machinations are happening behind the scenes of internet success?
Remember Livejournal? All your angst posts about poignant Vagrant Records band lyrics? Selfies (before we called them that) of your pixie cut? Or crucial fades? Stupid surveys… It’s safe to say that it played a major role in my social life as young adult years and I have most fond memories of that place.
I’d always known that Livejournal became super popular in Russia sometime after I stopped frequenting the site regularly. I sort of left it at that, assuming it was one of those quirky Russian internet things. Turns out it might be a lot more sinister.
The latest episode of – the excellent podcast – ReplyAll tells an interesting story of what happened with Livejournal and Russia.
Spoiler alert: nearly 10 years after its purchase by a Russian company, Livejournal’s servers finally relocated to Russian soil. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that the FSB and friends have direct access to any of your old content that might still be living there….