Come and get me (both you and AI)

You express, I think, a vague universal longing in your own specific terms.

From the BBC series Doctor Who, I have a picture on my wall of a confident Victorian age young woman, soon to die, saying, "Run, you clever boy, and remember me."

I am uneasy sharing my inner self online. Not for safety reasons or anything like that. I am just a private person.

I have no problems sharing with people in person, even people I have just met, as long as I have a little trust in them. My trust bar is low. As long as the other person is not an obvious sociopath, I will trust them.

But online sharing? I have a visceral discomfort.

I very much appreciate people like you Derek, and Tim Ferriss, who let it all hang out. I learn a lot from you guys.

I am inspired, Derek

How are you going to ensure the website is alive? I do follow your tech independence guide, but even credit cards have expiry dates! Who can renew the domains? What if the main site content is deleted?
hundredyearhost.com/ — Derek

"Re-create me"

Man, this idea terrifies me, and I can't quite explain why.

I wonder if this, and sharing your thoughts, stories, experiences and life in general came naturally to you, or is it something you worked on over the years?

I resonate with Stephen (above). I'm quite happy to share most things with people even shortly after meeting them for the first time, if the context makes sense. But the idea of doing so publicly, under my own name, making it forever available for anyone to read, seems extremely intimidating.

Thanks for sharing. It's great to see you blogging again.
See sive.rs/milt for context. I wish he had done a full brain-dump of all of his thoughts before he died, because I wish I could ask the Milt-AI for his perspective on things I’m currently thinking about. Or at least now read his thoughts from back then. — Derek

"Sharing yourself online is life after death."

Wow!

Just... wow!

🙏

That’s interesting you identify as your perspective! Cool!

It only makes sense that if we think we are our perspective that we’d want that to remain, and be used, and recreated, improved upon.

I can relate to that.

And I wonder too, what if I’m not my perspective, what if what I actually am is something different? What if I’m over identified with my perspective? What else might I actually be?

What a fun strange gift to be a human!

Wow Derek, this is both deep and relatable. Thank you for writing this.

"A personal website is an autobiography. I wish everyone had one. The more we share, the better. This site is what’s left of me after I’m gone."

I agree, Derek. That's a big part of why I convinced some friends to build pika.page with me. Right now it attracts a lot of indieweb/tech sorts, but it's built to be super-approachable for the non-technical. I hope that someday the parents, siblings, and children of the world are blogging more and sharing their story. I would love for my mom, kids, etc to be blogging.

I know you are a big Bear Blog fan, and there are others–I'm fans of them all! I hope all of these indie-blogging services grow day-by-day and fill their niche to get more folks writing and sharing and connecting.

Hey Derek,

Just want to tell you that I love you and your work. Thanks for taking the time and writing for us. Your general thoughts on things and your personal stories matter to us. Keep writing. It's a sad thought that you'll leave us someday. Well, sad is an understatement here, I almost cried reading this post and the last one about your final phase of life. But I guess there is no running. Your words will be Derek for us after you are gone.

This one hit home particularly hard:

Sharing yourself online is life after death. My mind’s processes and decisions — my perspective and values — are most of who I am. The more thoroughly I share my personality in writing, the more it can be experienced after I die.

...especially after just finishing the book, "Show Your Work" and thinking about how to combine this idea with the data-gobbling ai engines eating up the internet.

2025 "resolution" (despite hating this word) is to re-create my website/blog

Thanks for sharing.
Related, I saw this recent interview of Mike Tyson (by a 14 year old interviewer):
“After such a successful career, what type of legacy would you like to leave behind when it’s all said and done?”
Tyson: “I don’t know, I don’t believe in the word legacy.
I just think that’s another word for ego. Legacy doesn’t mean nothing. That’s just some word everybody grabbed onto. Someone said that word and now it’s used every five seconds.
It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m going to die and it’s going to be over. Who cares about legacy after that. (People think) ‘I’ve got a big ego so when I die I want people to think I’m this, I’m great’. (No that means) nothing, we’re just dead, we’re dust, we’re absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing.”

“Well thank you so much for sharing, that is something I have not heard before, someone say that as an answer.”

Tyson: “Can you really imagine someone saying, ‘I want my legacy to be this’ You’re dead! Do I really want to think about you?
Who the f*** cares about me when I’m gone? My kids maybe, or my grandkids. Who cares.”

I don’t hear this as depressive but as inspiration to just live.

Your timing is prescient as always. I was just reading about AI twins. twinprotocol.com/getting-started

It is coming your way.

Thanks for all your hard work.

I can resonate with your writing, and also the responses. Particularly Franco and Stephen - and the sharing online concept. This is my first public response to most anything. I generally don’t like to be seen online. And I generally don’t like the casual back and forth that occurs on socials. The ‘hidden-ness,’ the drama and backlash. But I’ve been watching on and off for sometime time, your community and culture of friends - and feel this a safer space of genuine deeper thinking, consideration, curiosity, discovery…

So to your blog, I would offer something for your consideration, in response to this line “My mind’s processes and decisions — my perspective and values — are most of who I am.” This is where I would say - you are more than the ‘mind’. You are more than words. Certainly, you have artistry in words, but you are also an artist in other ways. Artists who use other means, don’t need or use words. Their art speaks for them. And in addition - one can’t discount the ‘feeling-disposition’ of what you transmit and radiate. Any one who has sat in the company of a great yogini or sage, a great person of spiritual depth or simply - maturity, will attest (in words) to things that cannot be described very well in words. But they are essentially referring to their experience of a person that was not about words but also not reductionist in nature.

Also, what if you like to assume you have pretty set perspectives and values that ascribe yourself an identity, a ‘point-of-view’, but in fact, your curiosity and enjoyment of relationships and people, probably allows you to be much more fluid than you think. You may be, like a lot of things, a beautiful contradiction and paradox.

Hi Derek!

Why do you desire to be known/remembered after you die? I mean this sincerely.

Love from South Dakota.

Kind regards,
David
Others wish it, as I have wished it of others. — Derek

I used to think I'd want to be remembered, leave a legacy and all that. Not so much anymore. Being with the people I love, doing work I enjoy, savoring all the lovely and tragic and absurd facets of the human experience, helping others, making art--that's enough for me. I don't mind being forgotten, like a footprint in a bucket of water. Or maybe it's like that parable of the wave and the realization that I'm not a wave but part of the ocean.

Anyway. This is all lovely, these blog posts and your work. Thank you for the food for thought. It's a hearty meal.

I really like the idea from "Come and Get me". Our value is really something valuable to someone behind.

hundredyearhost.com/ <--- This must be!!! Thank you for knowing about it here, Derek. This page is bookmarked.

You've been such an inspiration! Thank you for sharing your wonderful stories over the years. I've learned so much from you, and it’s really made me think about different aspects of life. Your book, *How to Live*, is truly a masterclass! Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter of your journey! Third and final act in life..

interesting though pattern 😂 although it more like an ongoing book 🤔 or record
yes thats interesting angle

How did you write your comments form that I'm typing in now? What's preventing it from being a spam platform?
sive.rs/shc — Derek

I can understand that sentiment. But for me, I realized my meticulously-curated website that I doted over constantly was nothing but a monument to my ego. It's easier to die empty than full of yourself.
I see it as sharing your experience and what you’ve learned, for the benefit of others. — Derek

Something I notice you share by example is how one's blog essay can have key sentences in bold.

I agree sharing yourself inline is life after death. But I also wonder if it's really what I want. I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago. I do different things. I think differently. What is essentially me changes on a day-to-day basis, at least as my definitions change due to emotions and experience. A screenshot of my life online wouldn't allow me to keep on living...

Now I will stop debating whether to shut down my website. You’re right—it’s a partial record of who I am and what I care about, and might be helpful to others.

Thank you, Derek, for the interesting and valuable ideas you share.

Maybe I'll start a blog bc of your encouragement. I like your voice in writing and how direct and unpretentious it is as if you do not need permission to be yourself and live your life. I will report back whether or not I started my blog. Thank you! :)