identity

$68 Bucks Makes A Man Who Never Existed Internet Famous

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Kevin Ashton worked some internet Necromancy to create Santiago Swallow.  Generated names, photoshopped face, Twitter followers, etc.  All for no one.

So a few questions for you:

  • How many other people have done this – and how many did it for themselves versus fake people?
  • How much can we actually trust a lot of what covers “fame” on the Internet?
  • How do we cut through the B.S. for ourselves?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers athttp://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Don’t Let Employment Define Your Identity

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I remember my first layoff in 1996.

It was weird and traumatic.  I'd been let go before, I'd had temp assignments run out, but this was a case of everything just ended.  The company I worked for was gone, my co-workers scattered to the four winds, and I was out of a job.

I'd like to say that immunized me against future layoffs.  It didn't.  There's really something about your job just ending, and not because of anything you did – but because a company collapses, or runs out of money, or just decides to cut staff.  Your job is just gone.

In some cases, it feels like you're gone too.  You're not making money, not doing anything, and you don't feel like anyone.  Like it or not, we define a lot of ourselves by our jobs.

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Fans And Brands

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As anyone may have guessed, I'm a fan of the whole personal branding thing.  I'm no Dan Schawbel (hey, who IS except, well, Dan Schawbel), but I feel it's overall a positive thing -it's about establishing and communicating identity and building a presence. Sometimes it can get overdone (especially when one treats it like PRODUCT branding), but I feel it's a good thing overall – it makes people aware of themselves and how they present themselves.

And if you're a fanboy, fangirl, geek, nerd, etc. guess what, you are probably FAR better at it than you realize, because fandom socializing in the online days has massive elements of personal branding.

So guess what – you're probably pretty good at it.

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