“Robin Sloan decided…”
You know it's either really good or really bad when the article begins with "Robin Sloan decided..."—and it all depends on the next few words.
"...one day in October that he could be the falafel-eating champion of the world."
"...that the Somali pirates were doing it wrong."
"...to raise llamas."
It's not so dramatic—yet. Here's the article: a sharp piece about Kickstarter by Christine Lagorio in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
And here is the part of the modern media ritual where the blogger offers a few small for-the-records:
- To say "Sloan didn't have high hopes when he posted to Kickstarter" isn't exactly right; it seems to pin the doubt on Kickstarter. Rather, that first night, after I had posted the project but before I'd fallen fitfully to sleep, I had hopes—I just wasn't sure they'd amount to anything!
- Christine writes that my inspiration was "seeing [my] friend Web entrepreneur Andy Baio post a project on Kickstarter" and this is 100% correct, except that I don't want Andy to think I am claiming him as a friend—"Wait, who?"—so let's be clear: He is merely my nerd guru.
Finally, here is the picture from the paper, for your locker. I feel that I look somewhat Gollum-like here—
—but that's my fault, not photojournalist Jana Asenbrennerova's.

Great pix… glad someone inspired you on Kickstarter because you, Robin Sloan have inspired me. I just hope I know how to be anywhere near the entertaining blogger that you are. Yes, you do look somewhat Gollum-like. But what the heck. It’s a good look. BTW, I’m a runaway Iowa girl living in Florida.