How to become a citizen of the internet
+ updates and links
Discover Reddit in fourth grade through a CGP Grey video. Become fascinated with what it means to have "community" on the internet. Start with r/AskReddit and r/Jokes. Quickly figure out that the best stuff is always in the comments.
Read Reddit everyday. Notice that people online talk differently. They're funnier, wittier, and easier to understand. Make an account, but be too scared to say anything. Don’t worry, soon you’ll get bored of lurking and work up the nerve to comment. Help internet strangers build gaming PCs. Feel proud of yourself when someone thanks you for your advice. Feel a weird kinship with users in the subreddits you frequent. Stalk someone’s profile for the first time. Think about how cool it is that there is a digital history of someone's online life. Notice as you turn to Reddit for more and more of your interests: r/swimming then r/EDC then r/IOSsetups. Later on, r/debate, r/Formula1, and r/tennis.
Start watching a sport for a reason you can't remember. Be confused at first. Realize that Reddit is by far the best place to learn about whatever sport you're watching. You can become an expert just by hanging around people who talk about it a lot. Read through old posts to learn the history. Figure out what people think of the athletes and teams. Spend too much in GOAT debate rabbitholes. You feel smart, but eventually you'll need to learn to think for yourself.
During this time you also get into podcasts. Maybe there were ones before, but Cortex is the first one you remember. It’s hosted by two people who make a living through creating stuff online. You don’t think this is all that cool right now, but it’s going to have a huge impact on you later on.
Get really really into productivity tools. Calendar apps, note-taking apps, todo apps (especially todo apps). Scare your friends with how much money you spend on them. Discover productivity YouTube: Watch videos on Notion, how to study effectively, the best books to read, and why you should be earning passive income. Realize that your obsession with productivity tools is actually an obsession with lifestyle design. Hear about Tim Ferriss and listen to his podcast. Have a desire to become great at whatever you end up doing. Listen to an episode with Naval. Learn about startups for the first time. Decide it's not for you, but keep it in the back of your mind. Watch Ali Abdaal. Decide that creating things is pretty cool. Start by taking notes on the books you read. Keep a journal. Continue watching Ali. One day, without thinking about it too much, you'll decide to start a blog. I guess if you hear an idea enough, it becomes obvious. Have no idea what to write. You try to emulate the writers and creators you admire, but all you end up with are posts about productivity software and life goals. They’re good enough to share in the moment, but a few months later you take them down out of embarrassment. That’s okay—it means you’re developing taste.
Make a website to host your writing. No views, but it feels good to publish something. Congratulations, you have graduated from consumer of the internet to contributor to the internet. Continue to follow your intuition about publishing—you don’t know why, but making something and putting it out into the world feels like the most meaningful thing there is.
Discover another podcast, this one changes your life. One of the hosts really likes Twitter. Decide to give it a try. It's just celebrities and famous people tweeting, and none of your friends are on it. Give up.
Start college. Have no idea what you want to do. Your friends say they want to go into finance. Some older friends are in consulting. You mostly just want to have a job you can be proud of. Spend a semester and a half stumbling around. One weekend, instead of writing an essay for your poli sci class, write an essay about Malcolm Gladwell and trans participation in sports. Be a bit scared to publish it. Do it anyway and find out that people appreciate your perspective. Decide to take writing more seriously. Follow some writers and podcast guests you liked on Twitter. Your timeline is a weird mix of tech bros and nomadic writers. You still don’t really know what the point of Twitter is or how to use it. Notice that people on Twitter talk differently. Different than real life, and different than Reddit too. The profile pictures on your timeline become familiar faces. Begin to form opinions about people and decide you like some better than others. Go see who they’re following and follow them too. Your feed is transforming into reflection of who you are and who you aspire to be.
Read a blog post about how to use Twitter. You need to reply to people and actually tweet. Huh. Start replying. It feels weird at first, and when you look back at your early replies, they are weird. You need to fine tune how serious you want to come off online. A few weeks in, you get your first follower. It’s a surreal feeling that someone liked what you said enough to follow you.
At some point, though I forget when exactly, you learn about crypto. You think it’s cool because no one really knows what they're doing and it's possible for a young person to become an expert. Join Farcaster. It's like Twitter, but there are only 1,000 people on it. Try saying something and be surprised that real people give you real answers. Have conversations on Farcaster. It's the first time you 1) are forming relationships that are based on intellectual connection and 2) are forming relationships that are based entirely online. Reach out to people. Video call with strangers. Most of them you only talk to once, but some you keep in touch with. A few months later, you’ll host a brunch and meet a dozen of them IRL.
Double down on meeting people online. You make a rule for yourself—that whenever you read something you like, you’ll reach out to the author and ask to chat. You will have 50+ of these calls over the next year. Still be in awe, even as you write this, that you now have a handful of close friends whom you met on the internet. You start to expand your realm of possibility. The internet teaches you that a conversation with anyone is one (or two, or three) cold DM away.
Realize that Twitter is where culture propagates on the internet. It's where people share their most unpolished thoughts and where people are most willing to connect with strangers. If our physical lives happen at workplaces, campuses, and 3rd spaces, online life takes place on Twitter. Try to think about what your life would look like without Twitter, writing online, and the people you’ve met. It’s really hard to imagine because these things have had such a profound impact on you. It’s weird that almost every job you’ve had has come from Twitter, and you’ll be inviting internet friends to your wedding, and writing is something you’ll probably do for the rest of your life. It’s funny how all this means so much to you—this big game we call the internet. A microcosm of connection, status, and community that often feels greater and grander than the physical world. Feel grateful you found this place. That you are a citizen of the internet.
Updates & links
I will be in Austin through October 21—say hi if you’re around!
I finished Going Infinite and I think the criticism is overly harsh. It’s less an investigative piece into why FTX collapsed and more a vignette of SBF and his personality. In that context, I thought it was really good.
Freestyle rapping is one of the most cognitively impressive things one can do. This video impresses me every time I watch it, especially J Cole and Juice WRLD.
Enjoyed this format. Am reminded of my own journey with the web. Thank you.
As a kid that grew up in Latvia far from meaningful economic activity, the first time I went to San Francisco I felt more home than ever. This describes why.