Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes success brings failure. Sometimes success brings anxiety. Note Wikipedia as an example.

Back when Wikipedia was young (I am old enough to remember that), it was fun. I would write articles for it. I would put photographs in it to add some depth to some articles. Joy. Experiment. Learn.

Then Wikipedia became THE ENCYCLOPEDIA of all encyclopedias. Does anyone remember when Microsoft tried to distribute an encyclopedia on a CD? I digress.

Once Wikipedia succeeded in the eyes of some people, well, we started to worry and fuss. Who is editing those articles? That is political! X-wing folks are trying to take over and slant the world towards X. We shouldn’t have all that X. Replace X with fill-in-the-blank or some sort of evil.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Back when I would write articles, I was constantly reminded to write in the style of an encyclopedia. Just the facts. Cut the adjectives and adverbs. Date, places, numbers, facts. Boring. Not so much fun. And boy, cutting those adjectives and adverbs brings anxiety.

An encyclopedia is supposed to sort of be boring. Sorry about that. If you want opinion, read the National Enquirer.