A Memoir In Progress
by Levi Asher on Friday, January 2, 2009 01:51 am
In January 2009 I began writing a memoir of a dramatic decade I spent in the Internet industry, 1993 to 2003. I blogged a new chapter each week, enjoying and learning from the great comments posted in response along the way, and finished the first draft in December 2009. I'm now working on revisions. Here, still untitled, is a life in progress:
Chapter One: THE BREAK
Summer 1993: why I was working on Wall Street; a co-worker alerts me to the existence of the Internet.
Chapter Two: FINDING THE INTERNET
Fall 1993: I hunt down and find the Internet, becoming obsessed with Usenet newsgroups; rec.music.dylan; literature on the early Internet.
Chapter Three: BECOMING LEVI ASHER
Winter 1993/1994: I publish a short story in the first online literary journal Intertext and change my name.
Chapter Four: LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET
Spring 1994: I get an idea for a site called Literary Kicks.
Chapter Five: THE LAUNCH
Summer 1994: The World Wide Web grows more popular; I launch Literary Kicks one quiet summer day.
Chapter Six: ENTER MOZILLA
Summer/Fall 1994: Technological innovations on the web; the first "browser war" begins; life on Wall Street.
Chapter Seven: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WEB KIND
Fall/Winter 1994: meeting a whole lot of new friends; "creatures of the web".
Chapter Eight: JOB-HUNTING: HOTWIRED, DELPHI AND PATHFINDER
Winter/Spring 1995: a new job market emerges in New York City; I seek out and evaluate various job opportunities.
Chapter Nine: THE BEAT
Spring 1995: the neo-online Beat Generation/literary scene in the early web days.
Chapter Ten: THE SUMMER OF THE WEB
Summer 1995: I begin working at Time Inc. New Media (Pathfinder); Grateful Dead concerts.
Chapter Eleven: IN THE PATHFINDER BASEMENT
Fall/Winter 1995: Working for Time Inc.'s web startup, Pathfinder.com.
Chapter Twelve: LIT SCENE
Winter/Spring 1996: a new literary scene emerges online; organizing the world's first "web writer's reading" in downtown New York City.
Chapter Thirteen: CLICKING THROUGH
Summer 1996: technical challenges at Pathfinder; the emergence of Silicon Alley; early moves in the Internet advertising field.
(First Quarter Interlude)
Chapter Fourteen: DISCONNECT
Fall 1996: a historic opportunity to create a book of fiction and poetry from the web.
Chapter Fifteen: PATHFINDER GETS PERSONAL
Fall/Winter 1996: an amazing disaster at work, Pathfinder's Personal Edition.
Chapter Sixteen: MOVING TARGET
Spring/Summer 1997: turmoil in Silicon Alley; two Beat heroes die.
Chapter Seventeen: GETTING REVIEWED
Fall 1997: Coffeehouse: Writings From The Web is published; we get a few good reviews and one bad one.
Chapter Eighteen: DISNEYWORLD
Winter 1997/1998: Staying sane in Silicon Alley; unhappiness at work; a Dostoevsky project.
Chapter Nineteen: DINNER WITH DOSTOEVSKY
Spring 1998: I direct a digital movie of Notes From Underground
Chapter Twenty: WEBBY VALLEY
Spring/Summer 1998: LitKicks going nowhere fast; dreams of indie publishing
Chapter Twenty-One: MY MOVIE
Summer/Fall 1998: My digital movie of Notes From Underground hits the streets
Chapter Twenty-Two: FRINGE
Summer/Fall 1998: Drifting at Time Warner; more work disasters and literary frustrations
Chapter Twenty-Three: JOB-HUNTING: BROADCAST AND IVILLAGE
Winter 1998/1999: The dot-com stock market begins to peak; I entertain job offers and plot my next move.
(Second Interlude: July Breather)
Chapter Twenty-Four: LIKE IT'S 1999
Early 1999: Why I needed to get rich quick; turbulence at work and at home; the kids; rooftop dreaming.
Chapter Twenty-Five: DESIGN PATTERNS FOR AGONY
Early 1999: Arriving for the new job at iVillage; hesitating to walk in the door; why bad tech projects happen to good people.
Chapter Twenty-Six: WORKING FOR CANDICE CARPENTER
Early 1999: The inspiring leader of iVillage.com; courage and anarchy; work as a character-building experience; a new CTO is hired.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: A LITERARY LIVING ROOM
Early 1999: Why I didn't care about the late 1990s lit scene; poetry clubs of Greenwich Village; performing at the Living Room with David Amram.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: BEFORE THE IPO
Early 1999: Borrowing money for a stock market gamble; chaos and a new boss at work.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: CELEBRATION DAY
March 1999: The long-awaited iVillage IPO is a big success; parties begin.
Chapter Thirty: METAMORPHOSIS
Spring 1999: After the IPO; willing myself reborn; planning a big 5th birthday party/concert for Literary Kicks.
Chapter Thirty-One: BACCHANAL
Summer 1999: The meaning of happiness; searching for my place in the world; iVillage goes to the movies; the Literary Kicks Summer Poetry Happening at the Bitter End.
Chapter Thirty-Two: BREAKING POINT
Late Summer 1999: Transferring into the marketing department at work; confusion and malaise; Pokemon cards and San Francisco; divorce.
Chapter Thirty-Three: SINKING
Fall 1999: Finding a new home; dealing with post-divorce trauma; things go from bad to worse at work.
Chapter Thirty-Four: MILLENNIUM
Late 1999: On "probation" at work; getting my swagger back; Eminem and Kid Rock; becoming a hermit in Times Square; the Y2K scare and the turn of the millennium.
Chapter Thirty-Five: RUNNING THE NUMBERS
Early 2000: Working with the Community team; learning how to develop product proposals; launching member profiles; listening to Springsteen; a quiet peak moment passes unnoticed by all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: THE BIG SLIDE
Spring/Summer 2000: An article in Barron's magazine kicks off the dot-com stock crash; prices plummet; an industry falls apart.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: PICKING UP
Fall/Winter 2000: After the crash, a destroyed industry gathers its resources; mentoring sessions with Candice Carpenter; initial plans for LitKicks 2.0; the Mets in the World Series; a confusing election night; an unexpected turn of fate.
(Third Interlude: Bringing it Home)
Chapter Thirty-Eight: VERSION 2.0
Winter/Spring 2001: Digging into Java programming; dot-com market continues to slide; reinventing Literary Kicks as a community site.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: FALLING OUT
Chapter Forty: TUESDAY
Chapter Forty-One: GATHERING
Chapter Forty-Two: POETRY AND POLITICS
Chapter Forty-Three: LUCKY GUY
Chapter Forty-Four: HOW TO GO BROKE
Chapter Forty-Five: SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE
Chapter Forty-Six: THE RAFT
Chapter One: THE BREAK
Summer 1993: why I was working on Wall Street; a co-worker alerts me to the existence of the Internet.
Chapter Two: FINDING THE INTERNET
Fall 1993: I hunt down and find the Internet, becoming obsessed with Usenet newsgroups; rec.music.dylan; literature on the early Internet.
Chapter Three: BECOMING LEVI ASHER
Winter 1993/1994: I publish a short story in the first online literary journal Intertext and change my name.
Chapter Four: LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET
Spring 1994: I get an idea for a site called Literary Kicks.
Chapter Five: THE LAUNCH
Summer 1994: The World Wide Web grows more popular; I launch Literary Kicks one quiet summer day.
Chapter Six: ENTER MOZILLA
Summer/Fall 1994: Technological innovations on the web; the first "browser war" begins; life on Wall Street.
Chapter Seven: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WEB KIND
Fall/Winter 1994: meeting a whole lot of new friends; "creatures of the web".
Chapter Eight: JOB-HUNTING: HOTWIRED, DELPHI AND PATHFINDER
Winter/Spring 1995: a new job market emerges in New York City; I seek out and evaluate various job opportunities.
Chapter Nine: THE BEAT
Spring 1995: the neo-online Beat Generation/literary scene in the early web days.
Chapter Ten: THE SUMMER OF THE WEB
Summer 1995: I begin working at Time Inc. New Media (Pathfinder); Grateful Dead concerts.
Chapter Eleven: IN THE PATHFINDER BASEMENT
Fall/Winter 1995: Working for Time Inc.'s web startup, Pathfinder.com.
Chapter Twelve: LIT SCENE
Winter/Spring 1996: a new literary scene emerges online; organizing the world's first "web writer's reading" in downtown New York City.
Chapter Thirteen: CLICKING THROUGH
Summer 1996: technical challenges at Pathfinder; the emergence of Silicon Alley; early moves in the Internet advertising field.
(First Quarter Interlude)
Chapter Fourteen: DISCONNECT
Fall 1996: a historic opportunity to create a book of fiction and poetry from the web.
Chapter Fifteen: PATHFINDER GETS PERSONAL
Fall/Winter 1996: an amazing disaster at work, Pathfinder's Personal Edition.
Chapter Sixteen: MOVING TARGET
Spring/Summer 1997: turmoil in Silicon Alley; two Beat heroes die.
Chapter Seventeen: GETTING REVIEWED
Fall 1997: Coffeehouse: Writings From The Web is published; we get a few good reviews and one bad one.
Chapter Eighteen: DISNEYWORLD
Winter 1997/1998: Staying sane in Silicon Alley; unhappiness at work; a Dostoevsky project.
Chapter Nineteen: DINNER WITH DOSTOEVSKY
Spring 1998: I direct a digital movie of Notes From Underground
Chapter Twenty: WEBBY VALLEY
Spring/Summer 1998: LitKicks going nowhere fast; dreams of indie publishing
Chapter Twenty-One: MY MOVIE
Summer/Fall 1998: My digital movie of Notes From Underground hits the streets
Chapter Twenty-Two: FRINGE
Summer/Fall 1998: Drifting at Time Warner; more work disasters and literary frustrations
Chapter Twenty-Three: JOB-HUNTING: BROADCAST AND IVILLAGE
Winter 1998/1999: The dot-com stock market begins to peak; I entertain job offers and plot my next move.
(Second Interlude: July Breather)
Chapter Twenty-Four: LIKE IT'S 1999
Early 1999: Why I needed to get rich quick; turbulence at work and at home; the kids; rooftop dreaming.
Chapter Twenty-Five: DESIGN PATTERNS FOR AGONY
Early 1999: Arriving for the new job at iVillage; hesitating to walk in the door; why bad tech projects happen to good people.
Chapter Twenty-Six: WORKING FOR CANDICE CARPENTER
Early 1999: The inspiring leader of iVillage.com; courage and anarchy; work as a character-building experience; a new CTO is hired.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: A LITERARY LIVING ROOM
Early 1999: Why I didn't care about the late 1990s lit scene; poetry clubs of Greenwich Village; performing at the Living Room with David Amram.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: BEFORE THE IPO
Early 1999: Borrowing money for a stock market gamble; chaos and a new boss at work.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: CELEBRATION DAY
March 1999: The long-awaited iVillage IPO is a big success; parties begin.
Chapter Thirty: METAMORPHOSIS
Spring 1999: After the IPO; willing myself reborn; planning a big 5th birthday party/concert for Literary Kicks.
Chapter Thirty-One: BACCHANAL
Summer 1999: The meaning of happiness; searching for my place in the world; iVillage goes to the movies; the Literary Kicks Summer Poetry Happening at the Bitter End.
Chapter Thirty-Two: BREAKING POINT
Late Summer 1999: Transferring into the marketing department at work; confusion and malaise; Pokemon cards and San Francisco; divorce.
Chapter Thirty-Three: SINKING
Fall 1999: Finding a new home; dealing with post-divorce trauma; things go from bad to worse at work.
Chapter Thirty-Four: MILLENNIUM
Late 1999: On "probation" at work; getting my swagger back; Eminem and Kid Rock; becoming a hermit in Times Square; the Y2K scare and the turn of the millennium.
Chapter Thirty-Five: RUNNING THE NUMBERS
Early 2000: Working with the Community team; learning how to develop product proposals; launching member profiles; listening to Springsteen; a quiet peak moment passes unnoticed by all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: THE BIG SLIDE
Spring/Summer 2000: An article in Barron's magazine kicks off the dot-com stock crash; prices plummet; an industry falls apart.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: PICKING UP
Fall/Winter 2000: After the crash, a destroyed industry gathers its resources; mentoring sessions with Candice Carpenter; initial plans for LitKicks 2.0; the Mets in the World Series; a confusing election night; an unexpected turn of fate.
(Third Interlude: Bringing it Home)
Chapter Thirty-Eight: VERSION 2.0
Winter/Spring 2001: Digging into Java programming; dot-com market continues to slide; reinventing Literary Kicks as a community site.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: FALLING OUT
Chapter Forty: TUESDAY
Chapter Forty-One: GATHERING
Chapter Forty-Two: POETRY AND POLITICS
Chapter Forty-Three: LUCKY GUY
Chapter Forty-Four: HOW TO GO BROKE
Chapter Forty-Five: SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE
Chapter Forty-Six: THE RAFT
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