Monday, September 10, 2012

Fucking up.

Some time late last week, I wrote my 3,000 post on Ad Aged. Not a milestone like the four-minute mile or surviving Niagara Falls in a barrel, but to my small mind, something notable nonetheless.

Along the way over these past five years, Ad Aged has brought me a handful of friends and on average a couple hundred daily readers, give or take a few dozen. It's hardly the sort of blog that sets the world on fire. I am no Seth Godin or Perez Hilton. But I am pleased overall with my level of readership. It's way more than I ever imagined.

Also along the way, I've done some stupid things in this space. Most recently I insulted someone I admire. Not his work or his logic--that's fair game. But I insulted him personally and in a unnecessary and mean-spirited way. I've apologized and taken the offending post down, but that doesn't take away the hurt I caused. A hurt I am truly sorry for.

Mark Harris is a little-known writer I greatly admire. His baseball novels are among the best American fiction of the late 20th Century. He closes his most famous book, "Bang the Drum Slowly," with these words--the lesson the hero of the novel, Henry Wiggen, learned. "From now on, I rag no one."

I've always known the wisdom of these words. And have tried to abide by them. But recently I slipped. And therefore fucked up.

I know better. And will try to be better in the future.

4 comments:

Jeff said...

I've gone after people as well, then realized the error of my ways many times. I've had to take down a few posts, and some of them were so venomous that I even recognized it before I posted it. Fortunately I have a few friends I occasionally run them by before I post, and they manage to save me from myself.

http://rotationandbalance.blogspot.com/2012/01/saving-me-from-myself.html

george tannenbaum said...

Thanks, Jeff.

Once Steve Hayden said to me "I didn't burn bridges, I nuked them."

Hopefully I've learned a bit since then.

Anonymous said...

This is ass wipe here (remember your post last week)- glad you know how to take your lumps. I thought you would have been prideful, but good for you.

george tannenbaum said...

Anonymous, you're an asswipe because

a) You remain anonynous.
b) You entirely missed the point of the post you commented on. It wasn't in the least about politics. It was about communication.