The Idea

Pull A Chair Up is my attempt to replicate what its like hanging out just shooting the shit. How many times have you been hanging out at the bar, met someone new and asked them to pull a chair up? Growing up in New Jersey I can’t even count the times I’ve been hanging out at the diner with a group of friends and another group walks in and everyone is invited to pull a chair up. The best nights are the ones that start at 9 o’clock with 4 people and end at midnight with now 10 people sitting around the same four-top.

The Inspiration

I’ve tried blogging before. I own several domain names. I have a Livejournal and a Facebook . I just got sucked into the world of Twitter . For some reason I could never really stick to blogging though. Then I attended SXSWi this year and was both impressed and overwhelmed by just how many people were blogging, twittering, lifecasting, the list goes on and on. Seeing what some people have done, not with the intention for profit, but rather with the intent to write and discuss topics they were sincerely passionate about, really got to me. The idea consumed me on the plane ride home and for several days afterwards. I’ve got a lot to say, but not a lot about any one topic.

Then I started playing the "what if" game with people. What if I could start up something new? What if owned my own company? What if I could hire all my friends? I’ve thought for a long time that I could seriously put together a whole company of just friends. And not because I just want to work with friends, but because I’m lucky enough to know a group of seriously talented people that are underutilized at their jobs, or currently unemployed, or who I think would just be kick-ass. A lot of them aren’t even involved in the web or technology. I’ve got friends in HR, in Sales, in Web Development, in Design, in TV Production, in Theater, in Medicine, in Desktop Support. I’ve got a huge social network, and not the Facebook/MySpace one, the Real Life one.

The solution

It became obvious. The problem with blogging by yourself is the immense weight put on your shoulders in the beginning. How am I going to write everyday? How am I going to find readers? How am I going to pick topics? But, if I could spread that weight across a few friends looking for a creative outlet, then what? What if I could find people looking for a creative outlet? What if some of those people were so far removed from Web 2.0 and Digg and Twitter and TechCrunch? What if I could really create the kind of conversations had over 2am coffee at The Tick Tock Diner on Route 3? Conversations that are all over the map - from work to food to sex and back again.

This is my attempt at that. Come on over, pull a chair up and join the conversation

~ Chad - 3/31/08