Thread by @SethAbramson

(ESSAY) Charles Euchner has published a dozen books, has taught writing at Columbia and Yale, and has directed a think tank at Harvard. He now runs THE ELEMENTS OF WRITING. His just-published essay about my work is illuminating, and I hope you'll share it. theelementsofwriting.com/slot-man/

(PS) I agree with the few critiques Euchner offers of my work. I get myself in trouble by bringing jargon into popular media, though I do it because I think certain words—if they crystallize and become ubiquitous—can help us have conversations we presently don't know how to have.

(PS2) Euchner also notes, rightly, that independent journalists end up being their own PR reps; and the more they get attacked, the more they have to do it. I hate (more than I think any reader would guess) self-promotion and defensiveness. But attacks seem to come in near-daily.

(PS3) I think the "slot man" analogy is genuinely fascinating. I also think that digital slot (people) are probably fundamentally different their predecessors for various other reasons, as technology not only changes process and poetics but also, deeply, subculture and politics.

(PS4) The "slot (people)" of the past worked within institutions; that they were collaborators—team members—could be readily understand even as a matter of space (their offices were internal). In the transmedia digital age, many collaborations are implicit, not institutionalized.

(PS5) But what Euchner really gets, among much else, is that there's a sort of personality in the digital age who is looking to contribute in a unique way—but more explicitly, to fill a gap or need. If that person is idiosyncratic and not institutionalized, it can cause pushback.

(PS6) The main thing: we need more essays like this one from @AWriteratLarge—and fewer like what we get from @DanDrezner or @LyzL. There's the sort of piece one writes to gain clout/signal existing allies (Drezner/Lenz), and then those that are actually investigating sea changes.