friday links and idle philosophificationings
I’ve been exceptionally busy this week getting my Bruce Wayne life up and running. As Batman – aka brip blap – I’ve been running this site for a year and a half with my real identity more or less hidden. I’m not sure why, sometimes. It seems to be de rigueur for personal finance bloggers to blog anonymously. My decision to make this blog anonymous was mainly due to my concern about two factors: the privacy of my family and the possible impact on my corporate consulting gigs. I’ve written some less-than-complimentary things about some of my clients, so I think that’s an understandable reason for anonymity. And I think the desire to keep my family anonymous is understandable without explanation, too.
At the same time, if you look at the New York Times bestseller lists (non-fiction) or the biggest blogs you won’t see many successful “anonymous” bylines. Primary Colors was initially authored by “anonymous,” but other than that book I can’t remember a single book in recent years that was famously non-attributed. I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to be a writer, and I’m concerned that I won’t be able to build up the rep that’s needed if I stay anonymous forever. I’ve started two more blogs recently, one that’s a straight-up blog in my name (something along the lines of stevediddlypoppop if diddlypoppop was my last name) and another less-serious personal finance blog (that I’ll be rolling out soon).
Sp I’m twittering and facebooking and blogging and digging and stumbling (and so on) under two names. It’s annoying. Hopefully at some point in the future I’ll be able to put down the batcape. Like Batman in The Dark Knight, I dream of a day when my secret identity won’t be needed anymore, but recognize that day may still be a long way off. Until then, I’ll just have to live dual lives. And hope that my new, non-secret-name blog will take off lacking much help from this one.
On to the links:
- Robert Kiyosaki Writes Something Else I Agree With – Assets Don’t Make You Rich: Oh, Kiyosaki. How you annoy people. But he’s writing something in this case that it’s almost impossible to argue with, although I’m sure someone somewhere will, because being anti-Kiyosaki is almost a profession at this point.
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Reviewed: If you’ve been thinking about buying the book, this is a good rundown to help you decide.
- Suze Orman’s Free Book – Fixing Your Finances in 2009: Free now – must buy later. Suze always has a few good tips buried amongst the shrill sound bites…
- My Financial Goals for 2009 – What are Yours?: Other people’s goals – as I’ve mentioned before – alwasy interest me.
- Emergency Funds On Steroids: Have a few months in savings. Right now I’m living on savings, but let me tell you – if we’d had one month of savings for an emergency, I would have been groveling to go back to work at 50% of my last contract rate in a couple of weeks. Put yourself in a position of strength – you won’t be sorry.
- Millionaire Secrets of the Super Rich: The Big Problems They Keep: Money won’t make you happy, but I would like to be the guy who disproves that statement.
- 16 Ways to Do It Yourself: I am a big do-it-yourself proponent, but I’m also quick to jettison and outsource if I don’t have the skills needed.
- What to Expect and Exploring Expectation for the Future: This post sounds a lot like what I’ve written recently – “Reward them for good behavior and punish (responsibly) for bad behavior.” Radical!
- Do Above Average To Be Treated Above Average: If you want people to treat you well, do well. Simple to say, seldom done in practice.
- 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage Rate Fell to Record Low – Chart of the Day: Unbelievable. If I had any intention of staying where I live now (and I don’t) for another few years we’d be refinancing. As it is, we’re thinking this might be a good time to move…
- The Life Purpose Lie: Harsh words for people like me, but worth considering. Believe it or not, I’m still not entirely sure of my purpose. I like writing, but do I love it? Am I consumed by it? No. I like astronomy, too. I like politics. I’m quite anxious, to be honest, to discover my purpose. It’s not obvious yet – and Jonathan says it might not be for a long time. Not what I wanted to hear, but quite possibly true.
- From Russia With Love: Love the show. The blog needs work, but it’s fun to read, particularly if you enjoy the show.
- Carnival of Personal Finance: My post was included at the most recent CoPF.
- Blog Review – Brip Blap – better-trades.com: A neat new interview and write-up of brip blap appeared here at Better Trades – I was pleased to be included!
9 Responses to “friday links and idle philosophificationings”
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Hmm, do you think the anonymity thing is tri-state area related? Maybe we're less trusting? Like you, I see so many using their real names and I've wondered if I shouldn't too. I guess part of it is having to answer to family and friends if I ever write something they don't like and another part is keeping my family protected.
@FFB: No, I see plenty of people all over the US being anonymous. I know my initial concern was for my family, but also since I write about work conditions and behavior at clients who might stumble across my blog. Since I don't name the clients, I guess I don't have much to worry about.
I just realized how my “real name” is a completely anonymous name “on the net” which was a little disappointing – I hate to think of whatever limited “net cred” I have for bripblap not carrying over to my real name. Probably just wounded my ego a bit…
Even with staying anonymous, couldn't someone find out your identity if they truly wanted to? I understand the reasons for staying hidden and respect them, but like you say, maybe could take things to the next level by revealing yourself to the public.
Ever consider a pen name? I think that is what I am going to do once I launch my blog…. Over at http://www.mydollarplan.com, that is what she did and I got the idea from her. That way, you could have all blogs under one name and still be anonymous. My only issue is that I want to refer people to my page, but i'd have to do that anonymously as well. Also… i'll probably keep my email address the same and people who know me will know my email address.
Anyway… is that your real pic? If any of your clients came across your page… wouldn't they just recognize you in the pic? LOL.
I did consider a pen name – several of the Money Writers (my network) including Madison do that. At the same time, I want to actually have a career using my name writing/consulting/etc., and I think eventually a pen name (Steve Smith) would be as annoying to me as being “Steve Brip Blap”.
I really do think it's mostly an ego thing, so I probably worry too much about it! Syncing up this blog with my real name would be as simple as writing out “brip blap, the blog of Steve Johnson”…
And yeah, it is my real pic and real first name. Even without the pics, if anyone who knows me read the about page or half of these work-related posts they'd figure it out. I'm just counting on the vast size of the Internet there. I am sure that there are not that many Mississippi natives who lived in Russia in the mid-90s who live in the NYC metro area (although knowing NYC I'm probably wrong about that, too)!
@Craig: Oh, sure, and several people in blogworld already know it, mostly because I mistakenly sent them an email or twitter from my “real name” accounts. Most of my advertisers have W-9s with my real name, too. So I'm not Batman by any means.
You're right about taking things to the next level, though – it's hard to see how you can remain anonymous and continue to prosper forever, especially if you want to be well known for your writing. It always gets back to ego, though, it's just something that annoys me, more than something at this point that NEEDS to change.
I've been blogging under a pen name for a while now, for many of the same reasons you mentioned. I was thinking (daydreaming?) about a day when I might switch to my real name, and realized that might be confusing to my hypothetical readers. I've been one name for a while and all the sudden that switches? My blog is still so new I could probably switch, but I don't know if I should. I have other blogs with real names, so I'm with you there on being annoyed with managing multiple accounts for everything.
There are tenured professors who blog anonymously for career reasons as well. These should really be the last to do so, so I have been thinking of taking a stand for free speech. I'd do something similar viz. Early … written by … “. My real name produces 1000+ google hits and my blog 8000+ hits. I think there's much to be said for not trying to keep two personas or two stories straight. My main concern is being stalked or sued by some of the crazies. I actually got it so arranged that people who know me can easily find my blog whereas the other way around is much harder.
There are tenured professors who blog anonymously for career reasons as well. These should really be the last to do so, so I have been thinking of taking a stand for free speech. I'd do something similar viz. Early … written by … “. My real name produces 1000+ google hits and my blog 8000+ hits. I think there's much to be said for not trying to keep two personas or two stories straight. My main concern is being stalked or sued by some of the crazies. I actually got it so arranged that people who know me can easily find my blog whereas the other way around is much harder.