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I liked what comedian Louis CK had to say on this subject recently:

http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone

My experience is that writing long, insightful pieces of prose is just hard, miserable work. People do it because they feel compelled to, not because it's a fun way to relax. So it's easy to procrastinate or avoid it, especially if there aren't any external demands or deadlines to meet.




>My experience is that writing long, insightful pieces of prose is just hard, miserable work. People do it because they feel compelled to, not because it's a fun way to relax. So it's easy to procrastinate or avoid it, especially if there aren't any external demands or deadlines to meet.

Is it a problem if they don't? There are now many, many insightful essays on the internet; one could spend a lifetime reading them and barely scratch the surface. If you were actually writing for the attention it gets you, rather than for the sake of the writing (and the comment about favourite or retweet makes me think that's his real motivation here), and then you find a more efficient way to get that validation, isn't that a good thing? The internet won't miss what you didn't write.


Very true and insightful. The OP writes as if it's a big loss for the world that he tweets instead of blogging, and that Twitter is to blame for this loss.

But

1/ it's not a big loss

2/ he's the only one to blame.


I dunno, it's fun for me -- I find writing a long essay to be contemplative, meditative. It requires you to challenge your own thinking, which is both interesting and a little bit scary.

But I'm willing to believe I'm an outlier in this regard.


I dunno its fun. I find writn a long essay to be zen. It req you to challnge ur own thinkn, is both interestn and lil bit scary #ImAnOutlier

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