I asked Kottke.org readers if they had ever seen, heard, or read something on the web that literally changed their lives.
Fourteen people said no. Sixteen said maybe. Thirty-eight people said yes. These are some of their answers. Everyone is anonymous. Some said more than others.
Four different people listed pages from Metafilter:
- Ask MetaFilter
- ;Where’s My Cut? —: On Unpaid Emotional Labor
- For the person who’s got everything: “I read this post, applied, and had a play made for me.”
- [creepy filter] Is it normal to become this distracted from seeing an attractive person in public?: This reader pointed to a comment in this thread “that describes the grinding reality of daily low-grade sexual harassment.”
Five readers listed works of journalism.
- The Lilly Suicides by Richard DeGrandpre.
- The Overprotected Kid by Hanna Rosin “persuaded me to be a far less uptight parent.”
- Is This Working? on discipline and punishment in the school system.
- The Blissfully Slow World of Internet Newsletters. (I hope this person now does something with newsletters.)
- Don’t report sexual harassment (in most cases) by Penelope Trunk.
Five listed personal essays or advice.
- Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser [PDF]
- Mindfulness in Plain English by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana.
- Encountering the Gifted Self Again, For the First Time “made me realise that I’m not just a weirdo, but all of my “quirks” actually fit together under a label, and that has made me understand myself about 10000x better.”
- Pixel Poppers: Awesome By Proxy: Addicted to Fake Achievement: “an essay on performance orientation vs. mastery orientation, as applied to videogame genres.”
- DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #77: The Truth That Lives There.
Five listed videos or video series.
- “Almost any woodworking video by Matthias Wandel.”
- Vsauce.
- The School of Life
- The power of vulnerability by Brené Brown.
- Kid President’s Letter To A Person On Their First Day Here:
And ten listed entire websites.
- “Josh Davis’s www.dreamless.org message board, now defunct.”
- ”Violet Blue’s writing, which lead to me realizing sex is a much deeper and more interesting topic than mainstream news coverage would have me believe.”
- “The website MathPuzzle. It was the first time a website caught my attention and I corresponded with the owner/webmaster, and it opened me up to the online and offline community of puzzlers around the world. Working as a puzzle author got me through college and helped me establish a name for myself.”
- Bullet Journal.
- YearCompass.
- “Jeph Jacques’s Questionable Content, particularly how he dealt with suicide, depression, and the concept of people from different backgrounds so elegantly. I like to think it increased (and continues to increase) my empathy in the world.”
- National Novel Writing Month
- ”Radiolab made me want to be a journalist.”
- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi: “In 2005 I was trying to get information on how to study abroad for a year. Everything I read was on the Internet, and I then spent 9 months between 2006 and 2007 in Chicoutimi, Quebec.”
- Pixel Envy. “Not pandering. Started reading Kottke, DF, and Metafilter, and realized that I could try doing the same thing. I’ve had a modicum of success since, and met a bunch of really cool people as a result.”
Now pick up your instruments, and go start a band.