SELF-PUBLISHING SUPERVILLAIN

I need to preface this:

1. I think Wil Wheaton is awesome.

2. I don’t disagree with his post, nor do I disagree with the article he links to. At least, not to any great degree.

But I’m having a little trouble wrapping my head around the idea that Wil Wheaton is linking to an article on a Gawker site that has, as its premise “people need to be less cynical and try being nicer.” Damn it all to hell, irony, you do not fight fair.

wilwheaton:

It’s a multiple choice quiz that’s funny and insightful. It’s also pretty damn accurate, especially in the scoring section:

If you answered mostly [LETTER REMOVED BY WIL]’s:

You’re a probably an asshole.  Or possibly you’re an angry teenager.  It’s occasionally hard to tell those apart.  Most people find you abrasive, obnoxious and vile, however you’re in luck because you can grow out of this phase, and even if you don’t there are lots of other assholes out there to share your time with you.

There are a lot of angry teenagers on the Internet the last few weeks. I just want to say something, with kindness, to them: you guys, read this post about how being snarky is ruining your life from Lifehacker and maybe you’ll feel a lot better about yourself, stop being an angry asshole to everyone, and end up surrounding yourself with awesome people who are awesome.

…because there is a fundamental law of the universe that they don’t tell you about when you’re younger: you attract what you put out into the world; it’s basic human psychology. So if you’re awesome to people, other awesome people will want to be around you, but if you’re a dick, only other dicks will want to be around you.