Death by Blog

I have to say that I found this article about the stresses of being a full-time blogger a bit bizarre. Yes, it's true that I sometimes feel run a bit ragged by my job (and I've gone a few years without ever having a post-less day), but basically everyone feels that way about their job sometimes. And to me the most draining times are really those times when I've undertaken substantial work on top of the blog.

Most of all, to me having flexibility in my schedule is a great blessing compared to the conditions most people have to work under. In the grand scheme of things, it's a pretty good job and I consider myself pretty lucky.

Comments

In the grand scheme of things, it's a pretty good job and I consider myself pretty lucky.

So says Big Media Matt. :P

More seriously, you've been fortunate (although I'd argue it's been earned) to have been able to blend blogging with journalism and so you have been able to blog full-time with institutional-backing, be it from The American Prospect, the TPM Empire, or The Atlantic. You're guaranteed a pay check, at least until they fire you. There are cases of bloggers, like say, Steve Gilliard, who blog(ged) under quite desperate personal conditions, and for whom their blogs are critical financial and social lifeline.

Posted by dry_fish | April 6, 2008 10:28 PM

Matt, with all due respect, I don't think anyone thinks you're stressing out at all over the work on display at this blog.

Posted by Christmas | April 6, 2008 10:28 PM

I'm glad to hear you feel that way, Matt. Because I would certainly kill for your job. In fact, one day, I'm going to kill you for your job (j/k).

In the meantime, I must toil away, blogging for free and dreaming of a brighter future when someone pays me very little to do it professionally (which I would gladly take).

Posted by Big Blue | April 6, 2008 10:47 PM

As I was reading this very post a commercial for that Discovery show The Deadliest Catch came on. So I sat and thought for a second, on one hand the job of blogger has some stress and maybe alot of stress, on the other hand crab fisherman have a tendency to fall into the freezing Bering Sea and drown. You probably picked the better job but I don't know for sure just how much stress is involved here.

Posted by tom c | April 6, 2008 11:01 PM

As a guy who blogs regularly with no professional aspirations, I'm glad you take that view. Blogging is not really that difficult. That's why I'm always confused when Andrew Sullivan has to take a week off every month. I don't think that guy could work 40 hours a week and still blog 24/7 like so many of us Z-listers do.

Posted by Herb | April 6, 2008 11:10 PM

We'll know MattY is really stressing out over this job when we start seeing some thinking going into his posts.

As for the NYT article, someone - not me - who wanted to be a real ahole might consider the last paragraph to be black humor.

Posted by TLB | April 7, 2008 12:04 AM

Is there any particular reason why you blog every day? Did your contract with the Atlantic (Monthly) say, "Hey, Yglesias -- forget about vacations, kid. You ain't no Sullivan." There are plenty of bloggers who at least take weekends off, or even go on vacation without having someone fill in for them. Are you just a workaholic or something, inasmuch as someone whose job title is "blogger" can be a workaholic?

Posted by Adam Villani | April 7, 2008 2:11 AM

I get the impression Matt just likes to blog.

Posted by josephdietrich | April 7, 2008 3:19 AM

Stress at work (or anywhere) is directly related to control. I remember during the air traffic controllers strike the claim was made at one point that very few workers had the stress level of air traffic controllers. In reality city bus drivers are one example of workers who have a higher stress level. The example of the fisherman, if they are on a good boat with a good crew it is probably very rewarding work, and not in spite of the danger, but in part because of it.

Posted by Chowderhead | April 7, 2008 7:40 AM

Is there any particular reason why you blog every day?

I like Yglesias and his blog, but at least half his posts are about basketball, or about what he ate for breakfast, or short snarky quips reiterating points he's previously covered at length (jabs at Mark Penn, jabs at the Kagans, etc.). This kind of material, I suspect, doesn't take a lot of time and effort to crank out. It's easy to do, and it keeps readers coming back on a regular basis, knowing that there's almost always going to be something there, even if that something is mostly fluff.

Posted by Christmas | April 7, 2008 8:08 AM

"This kind of material, I suspect, doesn't take a lot of time and effort to crank out. It's easy to do, and it keeps readers coming back on a regular basis, knowing that there's almost always going to be something there, even if that something is mostly fluff."

Must be the Andy Rooney School of journalism...

You ever wonder why there's never enough raisins in your oatmeal? Not that people eat much oatmeal anymore, let alone raison oatmail. Maybe if there were more raisins in their oatmeal, they wouldn't feel the need to complain about how few raisins were in their oatmeal and wouldm't be able to bemoan their control of the quatity of oatmeal rasions.

Maybe we'd all be better off if we made our own oatmeal invited the world's leader to breakfast and then brought out trays, and trays of raison saturated oatmeal so they'll shut their yaps about the dearth of raisons they usually accustomed to. At least there'd be some peace and quite for a time while they're slurping their raison briming breakfast while then picking raisons out of their teeth. Then maybe they wouldn't have as much time fretting about the pulp in their orange juice...

Posted by Rihilism | April 7, 2008 9:26 AM

Right, blogging isn't much different than what most political/news junkies do everyday of their lives: have constant opinions on everything that happens 24 hours a day. The only difference is that we don't all write them down (or, uh, get a paycheck for it).

Posted by Brent | April 7, 2008 12:15 PM

You likely have a long life ahead of you, if heredity is any indicator.

Posted by Roger Ailes | April 7, 2008 12:51 PM

I don't think it's the blogging itself, but rather the business model. If you read the story, these people are paid per piece or per click, and I don't know if it's the tech industry, but there seems great pressure on being 'first'.

It's not the blogging, it's the working conditions necessitated by the pay structure. So 'sweatshop' may be a correct appraisal.

This comment is probably worth about $.01.

Posted by ronin | April 7, 2008 10:16 PM