Today I emailed an old friend of mine on LinkedIn and said, "The internet really rewards people desc

Today I emailed an old friend of mine on LinkedIn and said, "The internet really rewards people descending into their full personal crazy if they have any sort of public profile." This old friend of mine is someone I've barely spoken to in 20 years but we are kind of back in touch because she met someone who I've met here in New York and this person is so batshit nuts (not clinically insane – sane crazy, which I submit is far more dangerous).

All we talk about when we talk is this person. That's it. No how's your family? how's your job? Just "Holy shit did you see this thing she did?"

I'm not going to say who it is because infamy feeds her like sweet potatoes feed the rest of us, and so she's decently well known in certain circles. The last time I saw her in person was years ago on a night that happened to end up being one of the most personally dramatic of my life — but that's an aside. It started at a party she organized in which she stood on a table in a bar and yelled to a room full of people that it was the greatest night of her life.

Everyone in that room had just watched her fail epically on national TV.

I wrote what I wrote after this old friend sent me an Instagram selfie this woman posted on her way to the hospital. She was going there because she has been very public about a particularly ridiculous lifestyle choice that makes zero sense and leads ineluctably to this condition in every single case. It's basically the definition of this lifestyle choice.

When I write "crazy" I don't mean "mentally ill." I mean crazy, which I'm tempted to call a strain of stupid, but it's a kind of stupid exhibited by some pretty intelligent people. The internet really fosters it.

I would not be surprised if someone were writing that she's "so brave" in her comments right now.