Notes on Blogging

Julian Sanchez has some good thoughts here:

This probably sounds a little odd coming from me, but a lot of the habits blogging implants really are pretty destructive. I've obviously decided it's worth it to keep doing it, on net, but I try to remind myself of all the unhealthy tendencies blogging encourages. Most obviously, it is just absolute poison for a writer to get too accustomed to reading and writing in chunks that average 300-500 words. As you get hooked on the instant gratification of firing off "pieces" that each take a half hour, your inclination and facility at crafting sustained arguments really does get degraded. This is compounded by the bloggy focus on timeliness: It always feels as though the most vital thing you could possibly be writing about is whatever all the other bloggers are discussing right this second.

I posted this in the comments:

Heresy! If an intelligent human being asks himself, "What is the most important task to which I could apply my mind at this time," the answer should always be: Whatever other bloggers are frenetically discussing. What separates us from the apes, after all, is that we write out lengthy opinions on Scott Thomas Beauchamp, Huckabee's latest quip, Clinton's press release about Obama's kindergarten paper, etc., etc. This is all going to be of long-lasting significance to the American project, if not the universe.