Index

End of feed, I’m going anonymous

It’s the end of this feed after a decade.

I started Scratchpad as a blog for my lesser writings. I wanted to publish rough essays on it, and later turn the best of them into polished articles for my main blog.

The statistics

I had a decent rate of publishing over the past decade: 221 posts; 40,888 words; and 282,533 characters. Unfortunately I have not turned a single post into a quality long form article. I am happy with how the experiment turned out, and I am glad that I sustained a semi-regular pace of production over a decade.

Publishing is number 1 priority

When I write something, even if it’s a rough draft with half-baked ideas, I try to publish it. It makes sense to put most of your work out there for the world to see, even mediocre and flawed artifacts. We are bad at judging and assesing our own creations, we have blind spots, we need others to help us, guide us, and steer us towards our most promising musings. Exposing the fruit of the creator’s labor to the audience is the only way to evaluate it.

Write, get your thoughts checked by the world, and see if somebody cares. Maybe some of your readers will post feedback, critic or compliment to your inbox.

Publishing with your name is risky

It doesn’t matter who you are and where you live: publishing with your personal identity publicly is always risky. When I publish here with my real name, I expose myself to small perils: my writing may be subpar, my thinking may be faulty; this may reflect poorly on me in the future. My opinions may go against the grain of public opinion or the authorities’ interests. Now, or in 10, 20, 40 years…

Nobody knows if the author has sinned until the work has been published for long enough for the public mood to become hostile.

Publishing anonymously is less risky

If they can’t find you, they can’t get you. Anonymity can be liberating if you live in an environment hostile to deviant work and ideas.

The major downside of anonymity is: total obscurity at the beginning.

Starting an anonymous blog means I have to start from absolute zero. I have to build my audience from scratch. I can’t rely on any of my existing connections and assets.

I still think it’s worth it. My hypothesis is that publishing with a pseudonym can set my creativity free. It would give me the freedom to step into topics I would normally avoid, the freedom to explore areas considered off limit.

I want to see what happens.

Publish both ways

I will split my presence on the web in two:

  1. My personal homepage, that I will revive after being dormant for about 10 years. Where I will publish the material I am comfortable putting my name on.
  2. My secret playground. A feed to experiment, and take weird, controversial, or misinformed positions. All without suffering bad consequences in my life.

Anonymity is Internet’s greatest gift

Anonymity is the Internet’s best feature. Anonymous Internet is a parallel universe with less friction than real life, we can play in this space. The anonymous netizen can explore and experiment further.

Au revoir

I am going back to the old Internet: On Internet nobody knows you are a dog. That’s the way I like it. Meanwhile the real me will still publish at henry.precheur.org, subscribe to the Feed to keep yourself updated.