I emailed:
I’m sure the readers would appreciate your posts. I think they appreciate almost all the posts that aren’t mine. If I could do a customer satisfaction survey, I expect that the average approval of non-me posts is higher than that of my posts. The trouble is that my posts appear 400 times a year so they have no scarcity value.
I like most of your posts, but there are a decent number that aren’t really relevant to me or maybe I just can’t grok what you’re saying. That’s ok. There’s still a lot of value reading, even if I don’t think every post is a banger (and the number I have actively disliked is very small).
A depressing way to start the day: John hall wrote, “maybe I just can’t grok what you’re saying” which meant nothing to me although I was already an adult in 1963 when the term first appeared. A little more interrogating found this regarding two languages I am somewhat familiar with:
“In a sense, Heinlein’s Martian verb has become a little Dutch citizen, while in Norwegian it still retains a slight Martian accent.” There then follows an interesting discussion regarding how some other European languages grapple with translations.
I highly recommend this person go for it ! For 10 years since my postdoc with Andrew I put off blogging, waiting to know enough statistics. A year ago I realized I will never think I know enough, and that blogging is a great way to learn. The commenters have been so incredibly thoughtful and fun.