Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
The Fear Of Jerkitude
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2005 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Harlan Ellison v. Penny Arcade, and the court rules in favor of no one at all.
It often takes self-confidence and self-immersion verging on the level of sociopathy for creators to get their ideas on film or paper or CD without giving in to all the "helpful" agents and marketers and producers who want to water their vision down. And strong perspectives, especially outré ones, generally produce the most interesting art. I've gotten to interview a lot of my artistic idols over the last half-decade, and guess what? Some of them are just not nice. And so what?
If you have to be a jerk to be a successful and ambitious artist or businessperson, then what of those who don't want to be jerks?
