I recently read the book Nuoren toimittajan eloonjäämisopas (The Young Journalists’ Survival Guide) by the journalists Anni Lintula and Meri Valkama. I was surprized how little it reflected my own experiences. It wasn’t too long ago when I was a young journalist too.

Many colleagues have commented that this is a book that makes even professional, established journalists feel inadequate: you have to be smarter, do your research better, be more passionate, avoid a burnout while working towards a burnout. In short, its a book for good, humble, proper and workmanlike boys and girls. The message is that if you just work hard and apply yourself, you can be a good journalist. If you’re not on the case 24/7, you’ll crash and burn.

Reading the book, I was momentarily struck by a feeling of hopelessness: in the world the book paints, all journalists are exact supermen and -women of inassailable professional capability. Fortunately, afterwards I read some newspapers and was brought back to reality. Business as usual, of course.

A friend recently told me about Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School. The idea is that it’s a seminar where you learn all the skills you need to make a movie but don’t learn in a normal film school. Things like faking shooting permits, picking locks and operating in countries hostile to the film project.

Maybe somebody will follow Lintula and Valkama’s book with a similar project: a guidebook that explains all the things that you really need to know to be a journalist.