Nietzsche Was a Blogger

I know, I know; Nietzsche would hate being called this, but hear me out.

Because the internet is systematically making us dumber via training us to prefer our information in bite-sized pieces (see here), the task of the blogger is to say as much as possible in a matchbox of space. Every word must count; every thought must be clearly -- and, in the best-case scenario, beautifully -- expressed.

The other day, I was talking to my good friend (and Nietzsche scholar) about this curious and intellectually challenging enterprise. He said "Well, you know, that's essentially what Nietzsche was going for in his aphoristic style." But, he pointed out, the problem with such a pithy, aphoristic format is that it makes the author extremely susceptible to being misunderstood.

Indeed.

I'm not sure what to say about this latter fact, but I will say that with such a forefather in our lineage, practitioners of our craft (that is, blogging) have much to live up to and, in my opinion, change.