If I had not gone through my time of grief -- with my grandfather, father and uncle dying within a year and ten days of each other and then needing to assume roles in the care of my grandmother that most would see as unfair for a thirty year old -- then perhaps I would have comments available.
But instead, the truism "life is too short" hits me in visceral ways that it clearly doesn't for others. Lip-service is paid to understanding the truth, but people show through their actions that they think they have all the time in the world to waste on arguments with fools and/or those acting in bad faith. The real problem: a public forum just encourages too many people to perform. I am not going to participate in a forum of fools, and I sure as hell not going to create one. While the sidebar states you are the co-owner of the content, and you are, bad people are not co-owners of my time.
On the topic of adulation, I am less sure. I don't know the balance between the time spent reading comments versus a possible boast in productivity in feeling better about my work. But realistically, that calculus has more to do with how the rest of my life is going. And so, on second thought, I'm confident that the benefits are really not worth the costs. I should just focus on living well.
One thing I think I miss out on, especially compared the comment sections of John Michael Greer or Scott Alexander, is a stream of related books, articles and ideas related to a post. But then, I do have my e-mail over on the side. If you have any of those contributions, please do e-mail me. Ideally, I would also be sent links showing who came up with related ideas before me, or those who just express them much better, so I can update my own post and give credit where it is due.
