Former TechCrunch writer MG Siegler penned an interesting piece on his personal blog entitled “Just Win, Baby.” In it, he argues that tech blogging is a game. He says that playing the game was his primary method to keep motivated (though not his only one).
Here’s the crux of his post:
“Tech blogging is a game. Most of those still doing it probably won’t admit it, but it is. That’s the only way you can think about it if you aim to be the best. Competition pushes everyone. With blogging, as with all things, you have to be in it to win it.”
All right, MG. I’ll bite.
You can get pretty far if you think of the world and its challenges as a game. It’s a game to pick up somebody at the bar. It’s a game to move up the corporate ladder. It’s a game to land the big deal or get acquired for millions or billions.
I’ll admit that it’s an approach that I’ve used to get through periods where my motivation has been low. Find a story that will knock it out of the park in terms of pageviews, or write a piece that gets makes waves in tech and gets read by high-level execs. So yeah, in that sense it’s a game.
But it is not my only motivation, and it certainly isn’t my underlying motivation. I also want to make an impact. I want to learn from the companies and engineers I talk to. And most of all, I want to put myself in a position where I can change the world for the better, because that is what I believe to be my ultimate responsibility as a human being (corny, I know).
How does this relate to my job as a technology journalist? I believe my mission and responsibility at Mashable is to impact as many people as possible with my work. Helping them understand how to use Google+ is just as important to me as calling companies out when they start talking crap. Both help my readers stay informed. Pageviews are a measure of how many people I’ve reached with my work.
In my years meeting and chatting with the people who have done the most to change the world, I’ve found that none of them thought of their jobs as a game. Steve Jobs cared about building the best products in the world, regardless of what the direction was doing. Clinton & Obama certainly don’t play games with Gaddafi or Iran. The same can be said for James Watson or the Dalai Lama.
So yes, competition and “the game” are incredibly useful catalysts for producing great things. But never forget the reason why you’re playing the game in the first place. And most of all, don’t let the game itself be your motivation. If you think of life as a game, you will always lose.
Risqué and incredibly awesome image courtesy of Modblog.
You, MG, and I, we write about phones, social networks, and applications that let us tell our friends where we are currently drinking beer. Steve Jobs invented a computer, music player, and a new way of interacting with a mobile phone. Clinton, he had to manage a country. Obama, he has to get America out of a hellish economic crisis.
“I believe my mission and responsibility at Mashable is to impact as many people as possible with my work.”
Seriously?
Yes, absolutely. I’m nowhere near Steve Jobs. But it doesn’t mean I can’t make an impact with what I do. You should strive to make an impact with everything you do, no matter how small.
Just in case you didn’t know, I’m pretty sure Stefan commented with “Seriously?” because many people think that Mashable is the biggest joke of a tech publication (if you could even call it that); therefore, your statement is just damn ludicrous. In fact, I think you have quite some nerve to criticise somebody who’s at a higher level of journalism in both his place of employment & his personal style.
Impact and reach are two different things.
Tabloid journalism rarely creates impact and when you are an already established site – reaching people is easy.Â
Life is a game. Or is it? I guess it all comes down to your interpretation of the word “Game.” If you look at the word “Game” in the same context as a board game or even a sporting contest, then by definition there can only be 3 outcomes, Win, Lose, or Tie.
In life there is no such thing as win, lose, or tie. You can’t have a tie in real life. Winning or Losing at life can only be defined, by one’s self. The way I see it, no one can tell me if I am winning or losing at life, because they don’t know what life means to me. Sure you can remember hearing someone say, “He is such a loser” or “What a winner that guy is”, but that definition is only valid to the person that said it.Â
I would think that to Blog to win would mean, if you put words on the Internet and you get many followers. The more followers you have, the bigger the winner you are.  If you blog and you are the only one that reads it, then you might as well not post it for the public view.Â
I personally like your writing style as I do MG, and I think that you are both winners as you have my attention and I appreciate the information that I learn from your words. Â Keep it up. Â
Ad numbers and economics drive the competitiveness (eyeballs as we used to call it back in the 90s), but if you’re not learning things and educating people as a tech journalist, then it’s not much more than a circle jerk. The learning and helping people side is why I’ve been doing this for 20 years…Â
 It is difficult to remove people from that mindset. Nicely put, “circle jerk”.
Ben, what you say isnt for everyone, this country thrives with leadership. And without leadership, there is no game… Are you proposing that leadership is problematic?
Write code , you’ll make a bigger difference there. else write fiction, maybe ,ore people will listen to u. As they say, don’t take yourself too seriously, no one else does 😉