Early risers are disgusting — and disadvantaged

Peter Shankman — "CEO, entrepreneur, adventurist" — is a blogger and publicist running The Geek Factory, a NYC boutique PR and marketing firm. Shankman likes to think "a little more 'out there.'" He's "out there" all right. Shankman wakes up really, really early. I mean, disgustingly early. The publicist/blogger didn't always like mornings, and he knows it's insane, "but to be up and working this early has so many advantages," says Shankman. It also has its disadvantages.

Shankman titles a blog post: "Sunrise: Not just for those who stayed up all night anymore..." Hmm, can this be? He has me baffled. He writes:

Drives most people I know crazy, but I'm all about getting up at 4:30, 4:45am, and getting a jump on the day.

This naturallly set off a running inner monologue. 4:30? Are you a farmer? You do realize it's just you, the other crazies, farmers, and farm animals, right? As a publicist and a blogger, you are missing the two prime times to socialize and network. In the late morning, when bloggers are Twittering like the tweeting birds of dawn, everyone will be having their morning coffee and rehashing last night's goings-on when you're done with that and ready for lunch. Nighttime is when drinks go down the gullet, and mouths and purses open. As a publicist and blogger, you have to keep up with the twentysomethings who drink like fish, or you'll go extinct. There are teenagers in the business with later curfews.

Let alone the early morning exercising thing - that's a given - and I won't preach on that this morning.

Please, yes, don't preach. I have a headache, and I'm still trying to comprehend waking at 4:30 in the morn... is that morning? Exercising a given? Please ... just give me some coffee. But what really gets Shankman going is that he can respond to early morning news and send out emails before anyone else:

What's the first email they're going to see this morning when they walk in and are looking for sources? Yup.

Nope. I got eighty other emails between 5:30 and 7:30, and I read them in reverse chronological order. Now, it's getting past 10:30 and I still haven't worked my way down to yours yet.

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