Jason Kottke interview response

I chose to respond to the interview about Jason Kottke because his blog sounded most similar to the type of blog that I am most familiar with; Tumblr. For those who not know what tumblr is, basically, you have your own page and may follow others, similar to twitter, but you can post different types of media, such as texts, images, videos, music files, and links. Then you can “reblog” what others have posted as well, adding commentary if you so choose to. People post on an array of topics, ranging from personal posts, to celebrity gossip, fashion, news, or just funny things.

With that said, I don’t really understand why Jason’s site is so popular if it is basically the same or similar to many thousands of tumblr sites (and in the interview, Jason himself states that he has no idea why his blog is so popular). I especially don’t see why he would be making money off of it personally when it’s so simple to just stumble on random links by yourself. So, I went on kottke.com, and honestly, I was disappointed. It was boring, in my opinion. It did remind me of tumblr, but one that I would not follow because I was not even interested in 50% of what he posted, and another 20% I had already seen days or weeks earlier from other sites.

I don’t mean to undermine the work that Jason has done or the success that he has achieved. All I’m saying is that I’ve seen what he’s doing before, and I’ve seen it done better by less experienced people. However, that is just my opinion and of course, it doesn’t hold much weight when it comes to blogging because I am in no way an expert in the field.

I did, however, appreciate Jason’s answer to the question of how the possibility he may be flamed affect his writing. I liked the fact that he knew well enough to not take the criticisms personally while still maintaining enough modesty to understand that some may contain a significant amount of truth. Additionally, I liked Jason’s answer to eh question of why he blogs; “Curiosity? Habit? Addiction? Don’t want to get a real job?” It really seems to me as though Jason did not mean for his site to achieve the status that it has, but now he has decided to embrace the opportunity to make a living off of what he has enjoys doing. And even if I and many others don’t necessarily see the allure of his blog, if it’s working for him and if others are interested in what he’s doing, then he definitely should keep it up.