Bad news, peeps. Dave Winer twittered this morning that he’s going to start being an asshole:
Good morning everybody.I’m like a dog with a tin can on his tail.
Actually a bunch of em. So when someone starts whinging about me, they hear from all the “tin cans.” Tim O’Reilly is one of them for sure.
There’s some guy at Microsoft who’s one of them (might be a woman and they might not still be there).
Cowards, they do it privately. So I get an email saying “all these people say you’re an asshole.” Must be true, right. Heh.
I decided while driving south to document this. As long as I have to carry the rep with me, they should too, imho. Let’s out em.
BTW, talking with a friend last night (shall remain nameless) — I said “As long as everyone says we’re assholes…”
“We might as well *be* assholes…” Where’s the fun in being a nice guy who everyone says is an asshole?
I think of people (also nameless) who are assholes who everyone says are nice guys. Now that’s a good deal!!
Well… step inside Dave’s mind:
They love me, they hate me… I love me… I hate them… I don’t need friends… I have a few friends that value… I thought (also nameless) was my friend… or maybe (also nameless) thought I was fooled into thinking they we’re my friend but I just played them… the list of people that pretended to be my friend and then stabbed me in the back is so long that I stopped keeping that Outline on my laptop… but I do keep it in my head… elephants know exactly what I mean.
Looks pretty familiar to me (being inclined to paranoia)…. but I wouldn’t expect to build trust with such candor. In fact, experience tells me that announcing an attack befor the just makes the onlookers nervous… and adds crazy people to the campaign.
“We’re all bozos on this bus.” – Firesign Theater
It never ever occurred to dave that he might be an asshole that everyone says is an asshole. There is an old saying, “if only we could see ourselves as others see us.”
All I could think reading those tweets is that I can’t believe he spent the whole trip stewing about people who hate him (and probably at least the whole morning given he was talking about it the night before)
He must have the most terrible heart burn…
“Where’s the fun in being a nice guy who everyone says is an asshole?”
Maybe he should ask someone in that situation. He certainly has no first-hand knowledge of it.
I wonder who the “friend” is that made the remark. Sounds like marc canter. He and dave are bestest buddies, and it would be hard to pick who is the bigger asshole. Well not really, winer is a bigger asshole. Sorry, I lost my head for a second.
When Dave is an asshole, the soap opera can begin.
I was a bit bored following Dave until the whole Calacanis brouhaha. It’s Dave at his finest. Very entertaining.
I say, bring on the assholery!
I like the line “as long as I have to carry the rep with me” Or just a rep well earned?