When I was 21, I used to go to the gym three times a week, rain or shine. After a few years I shaved off a weekly session, and a few years later I was down to one gym session a week. By the time we moved to Pittsburgh, playing Dance Central with my wife seemed like a demanding workout.
Why am I telling you this? Because blogging is a bit like going to the gym — as the following graph suggests (the y axis shows the number of blog posts posted by yours truly, excluding announcements and guest posts):
But blogging is definitely more fun than going to the gym, and I did have a lot of fun blogging these past 2+ years; I want to thank Noam for this opportunity. Unfortunately, it’s no longer as fun as it used to be, and I decided to quit while I’m ahead. Since my blogging career was defined by ranking and listing stuff, I would like to finish with a vainglorious list of some of my own posts that I especially like:
- In the “game-theory-ish pop culture” category: Is game theory useful? (See also this related post and the longer piece in Symposium Magazine.) Honorable mention: Russel Crowe was wrong.
- In the “perspectives on academic life” category: Is it fun to be a professor? Honorable mention: Doing a PhD: Almost the best job in the world and scientific success as a fluke.
- In the “actually includes scientific content” category: NSF actually reviewing via social choice (which sparked the research that led to this EC’14 submission). Honorable mention: Fair division and the whining philosophers problem.
- In the “favorite whimsical title” category: EC=MC^3.
Now that I think about it, blogging is more like singing in the shower: it’s a creative form of self-expression, and you have no idea who’s listening. If you have been listening for the last two years, I’m grateful for your attention — I sing like a crow!
Turing's Invisible Hand 
Perhaps you haven’t been the most prolific blogger around, but you sure have been the wittiest!
I have certainly enjoyed your posts. It is really hard work blogging. It wouldn’t be that hard if it were a recognized standard part of an academic career path, but the increasing pressure to produce makes it hard to find the time. Even Scott Aaronson hardly blogs any more. Maybe you could tweet?
Thanks, Mark, for this and your many other thoughtful comments. I don’t think it’s a matter of incentives, because I do have time to blog (and it doesn’t take a lot of time to post something once every few weeks). It’s really a matter of blogging not being as fun and exciting as it used to be. Twitter is not for me — I never understood its appeal.
I have been writing on various blogs for over 14 years.
Had to do it, even when not fun, because the primary audience was myself.
Trying to get clear about what I thought by trying to explain to the a more general audience.
Thanks Ariel for the interesting posts.
😦 I have some other favorite posts, including this one — the ending was epic (!)