My I began to fray

The Hofmann Wobble, by Ben Lerner depicts some of the drawbacks of being a Wikipedia editor:

I did not think I was actually a marathoner. Or Mormon or an amateur military historian. (Or a mother of four in Memphis or a man in Boston focused on improving autism entries, etc.) I wasn’t crazy in that way. But the fact that I spent fourteen hours a day being numerous, writing in so many voices, had an effect. My I began to fray.

For an alternative point of view on Wikipedia, see annie rauwerda’s letter to the editor at Harper’s.

For what it’s worth, I find it amazing that Wikipedia is still as good as it is. It could be better, but in general there are more Wikipedians aspiring to moving the site’s content in the right direction, expanding the amount of accurate information about our world and all the stuff that’s in it, than bad actors pushing in the opposite direction for their own reasons. Long may that continue. ¹

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