Zuzu's got an interesting post on why she blogs anonymously. Like most cloaked wordsmiths, she's concerned about occupational harm -- blogging could hurt her. You hear this conversation a lot. All the grievous harm the medium can do, all the glass ceilings and skittish employers it creates. But you rarely hear how it can help. My career path, for instance, was set by blogging. Because I blogged under my real name, I was able to reap the benefits of it in a way the masked authors can't, and that ended up deciding my trajectory -- and much for the better! I used to think about electoral politics -- that's not an option. But nor was it ever a serious path, I would've ended up yet another golden-cuffed lawyer or campaign grunt. As it is, I'm a magazine writer, and I love the work.
Blogging can actually open doors that would've otherwise remained closed: Oliver Willis got a job at Media Matters, as did Duncan Black (Atrios). I followed Matt Yglesias's path, jumping from new media to old. Jesse Taylor became a campaign aide for Ted Strickland, while Josh Marshall, Feministing's Jessica, and Andrew Sullivan became professional bloggers. Book deals abound. Etc, and so on. None of which obviates Zuzu's point. But it is to say that while anonymous blogging may be safer, it also limits opportunities. If you know you'll be entering a career that blogging will harm, a pseudonym may make sense. But to start out that way can close you off to fateful and wonderful directions that the medium can, itself, direct you in.
