Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want trade the cocaine that is HN with a weed variety, you should blog. It's really fufilling. I blog publicly but also journal privately using git and vim. I have been on and off for about 5 years. The raw thoughts rarely show the light of day, but sometimes I synthesize my journal entries as blog posts or HN comments. I refine my true self for the public. This saves me from letter downvotes sway what I belie…
> you should blog. It's really fufilling. In what way? Do you write for yourself then make it public not caring if anyone sees? That doesn't sound fulfilling; I have blog posts over the years which I have no idea if anyone ever saw and it feels a bit of a waste. Do you write as if you're trying to contribute to the world? Then doesn't that depend on feedback to know if you are succeeding or failing, and put you in th…
We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to
the kind of look we wish to live under.
The first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other
words, for the look of the public. That is the case with the German singer, the American
actress, and even the tall, stooped editor with the big chin. He was accustomed to his
readers, and when one day the Russians banned his newspaper, he had the feeling
that the atmosphere was suddenly a hundred times thinner. Nothing could replace the
look of unknown eyes. He thought he would suffocate. Then one day he realized that
he was constantly being followed, bugged, and surreptitiously photographed in the
street. Suddenly he had anonymous eyes on him and he could breathe again! He
began making theatrical speeches to the microphones in his wall. In the police, he had
found his lost public.
The second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by
many known eyes. They are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners. They are
happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the
feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. This happens to nearly all
of them sooner or later. People in the second category, on the other hand, can always
come up with the eyes they need. Marie-Claude and her daughter belong in the second
category.
Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly
before the eyes of the person they love. Their situation is as dangerous as the situation
of people in the first category. One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the
room will go dark. Tereza and Tomas belong in the third category.
And finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the
imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers. Franz, for
example. He traveled to the borders of Cambodia only for Sabina. As the bus bumped
along the Thai road, he could feel her eyes fixed on him in a long stare.