On Wheaton’s Law: Don’t Be a Dick
A Dear Jackrabbit letter about character
This is part of a series of letters I wrote to my son the year following his birth. It has been edited lightly, but maintains the thrust of the original “Dear Jackrabbit” letter.
I wrote about a lot of things after Jack was born. Some silly. Some serious.
I’ll let you decide where this falls. My apologies if the language seems a touch salty in spots.
Dear Jackrabbit,
Today I’m going to talk, in a rambling sort of way, about character. And we’re going to introduce the topic by citing Wheaton’s Law — a very simple and quick rule.
Don’t be a dick.
First, a little bit of background. Like… who is this Wheaton fellow?
By the time you’re old enough to really comprehend these letters, you’ll probably know Wil Wheaton as another old man, like your dad, who prattles on about games and other nerdy things.
He’s an actor who, when he was young, got typecast by some roles he played.* For years he felt sidelined and discouraged by this typecasting and had some rough years.
Then he got past all that and went on to reinvent himself to become a kind of King of the Nerds (that’s a Good Thing).
