If you go to the Valley, you’re gonna have friends like crazy, but they’re gonna be fake friends. They’re gonna try to corrupt you. You got an honest face, they’re gonna tell you everything. But you cannot make friends with the CEOs and Founders. If you’re gonna be a true blogger, a tech blogger, first, you’ll never get paid much, but you will get free schwag at conferences….

(laughs) There’s fucking nothing about you that is controversial. God, it’s gonna get ugly, man. They’re gonna buy you lattes, you’re gonna meet girls on the internet via webcams, they’re gonna try to give you free beta access, offer you WiFi. I know, it sounds great, but these people are not your friends, these are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of web 2.0, and they will ruin the internet and strangle everything we love about it and then it just becomes an industry of cool. I’m telling you, you’re coming along at a very dangerous time for the internet and that’s why I think you should just turn around, go back and be a intellectual property lawyer or something. I can tell from your face that you won’t. I can give you ten bucks. Go register a domain and write about something you love.

I’m feeling uncool today so found the text of my fave scene from Almost Famous:

 LESTER BANGS
 Aw, man.  You made friends with them!
 See, friendship is the booze they feed
 you.  They want you to get drunk on
 feeling like you belong



 
 WILLIAM
 (ruefully)
 Well, it was fun.

 LESTER BANGS
 They make you feel cool.  And hey.  I
 met you.  You are not "cool".

 WILLIAM
 I know.  Even when I thought I was, I
 knew I wasn't.

 LESTER BANGS
 That's because we are uncool!  And
 while women will always be a problem for
 guys like us, most of the great   art in
 the world is about that very problem.
 Good-looking people have no spine!
 Their art never lasts!  They  get the
 girls, but we're smarter.

 WILLIAM
 I can really see that now.

 LESTER BANGS
 Yeah, great art is about conflict and
 pain and guilt and longing and love
 disguised as sex, and sex disguised as
 love... and let's face it, they got a
 big head start.

 WILLIAM
 I'm glad you were home.

 LESTER BANGS
 I'm always home!  I'm uncool!

 WILLIAM
 Me too!

 LESTER BANGS
 (leveling)
 The only true currency in this bankrupt
 world is what we share with someone
 else when we're uncool.

 WILLIAM
 (distraught)
 I feel better

 LESTER
 My advice to you.  I know you think
 those guys are your friends.  You want
 to be a true friend to them?

 William takes a deep breath.  Looks at the research cassettes and
 notebooks.  The empty page.

 LESTER BANGS
 Be honest and unmerciful.