154. I Wrote a New Introduction

In a world of catfish, I thought it was time to explain how I became an interactive media Subject Matter Expert. You might be surprised to learn there is an actual process.

My new introduction article, “Intro: Who is Ramin Shokrizade?”, now occupies my previously unutilized intro article slot. Just prior to article 0. There I explain that there really is a ritual that you go through in academia to pass the torch of expertise from one person to another. It all has to happen by consent, but sometimes there are people who won’t approve of the chosen successor.

I triggered the start of the ritual in 2009, quietly, but not quietly enough. By 2013 the ritual had been completed, and this upset a lot of people, especially in the USA. The person who handed me the torch was a quiet rebel from MIT, and a lot of effort went into making sure that torch would not transfer. But it did, and how it did would make a good movie.

Trust me, nothing gets academia more hopping mad than when the torch gets passed outside of the Ivory Tower where they lose complete control over it. Ultimately, that was their choice, not mine. I played by their rules until they were broken by academia.

The new intro explains my twisted tale and gives context as to why I keep struggling with deletion. Here I don’t mean self-deletion, I’m cognitively and emotionally stable.

I would like to thank Substack for giving me a literary home, and all my readers for making that extra effort since I don’t exist on social media (other than LinkedIn. And like many others, my reach seems very much throttled there).