5 Years

Five years ago tomorrow I started this blog. I was working at a job I didn't particularly like nor found mentally fulfilling, and the blog was intended to be a creative outlet. Blogging took a little getting used to. Honestly a sizable chunk of my first entries were blatant plagiarism of Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column. But it was something fun to do and I got better at it over the years. A couple or three entries had pictures of DIY projects I'd done, which gained traction on Google Image search and I get a pretty regular stream of 200-300 people a week to those particular posts. The other posts get about 20 readers.

But it was never about traffic for me. Or revenue. It was about writing. I'm sort of a weird engineer because I like writing. I like practicing it. And after 5 years of honing my writing, I'm ready to be done with blogging. My current job is incredibly exhausting, but I love it. My family, since I started this blog, has grown by two children and two dogs. I've bought a house (and everything that goes with it). My wife finished school and got a full-time job. My daughter starts Kindergarten in a few weeks. Life is just really busy.
And I committed myself to writing a book, which is coming along pretty well. And I'm trying to learn Spanish.

But the busy-ness isn't the reason I'm quitting. I'm quitting because I feel done.

I want to direct you to pretty much anything Freddie deBoer is writing. That guy can cut through B.S. like no one else on the internet.

Thanks to all my readers, I hope you found something on here you liked once or twice. I plan to leave this up and not archive/delete any posts, because there are several entries I am hoping my children will find and read one day.

And if you should never hear from me again, because you do not know me personally, cannot find me somewhere else online, or for any other reason, please go from here with the words of William Safire:

Our charge today is to value the goal of discovery that drives questing humans to take great risks.

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If A, Then B

WSJ Headline 1: Math, Science Popular Until Students Realize They’re Hard

 WSJ Headline 2: To Follow the Money, Study Engineering

 The conclusion isn't hard to draw.


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The Influence of Andrew Sullivan

Ross wonders if Andrew Sullivan is the most influential political writer of his generation. I humbly submit that my grandmother, who votes in every election, has never once in her life heard of Andrew Sullivan.

I'm not going to argue that Sullivan hasn't been influential. Douthat and Tyler Cowen rightly point out that Sullivan's crusade for gay rights has been both effective and important. And in general terms he obviously is a popular writer, Obama even reads him.

But outside the beltway...Sullivan's name and influence start to wane. And I have to wonder if all these writers and political journalists and political bloggers, all having their parties together and hanging out in their swank apartments where they all talk with and about each other...they have a skewed notion of what influence is.

I remember in high school there were these two kids that were really popular: Ky and Cameron. In fact they were so popular that even at the other high school in town they were respected. But go any further away than that, and no one had ever heard of Ky or Cameron. Nor did anyone feel it necessary to respect them.

Andrew Sullivan has his moments. Even at its worst, his blog is entertaining. But how can Ross et al. call Sullivan the most influential political writer in his generation if he can't even get enough subscribers to support his site?


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America, June 2013 Edition

Never has the quote "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" been more aptly applied.


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