It's official. Sometime today I got my millionth hit. That's a fairly extroardinary landmark of which I'm rather proud. I will only celebrate it by sharing that factoid with you, my readers, who have made it all possible. You are not fans of some obscure little blog. But you know that.
It took about seven years. I've put in almost 8000 posts and we have recieved over a quarter million comments. It's not huge by the standards of the major blogs, but it's better than hanging out in the park. I consider the blog a success.
As you know, my mission has changed over the years. I'd say there's a significant difference between 42 and 49, and in five years I'll be a completely different person. My aim is to become slightly more ascetic and continue to read more and talk more about the books I read. I'm just about done with gaming on XBox, which I've also done for seven years, and I expect that to liberate more of my time. I quit Mafia Wars on Facebook about a month ago, and since January I've lost about 20 pounds. My quick little experiment in the market this summer showed I can make money when I pay attention. And my attention to open source software has begun to pay off. I've also learned that I really love to focus and let my mind crank on things and that I should waste less and less time.
What all that means for the blog is that I'm likely to pursue a few less topical items as I get a bit more focused and serious. I'll probably write longer pieces, but who knows. I'm looking forward to understanding a lot more about what Taleb is about to write which will probably take me into a new place I haven't considered here much at all, and that is the world of psychology. I have been avoiding discussions about psychology and sex because I don't have any theories about them. But I'm beginning to see where the cognitive science in me is looping back to that world considering Taleb and Steven Pinker are saying about how humans represent reality in their heads.
As for sex, I'm really curious as to why people are so utterly meserized by it, or particularly why people think good sex makes life good. Which is to ask if sex is the opiate of the masses and what the effect of doing it has on perception. That's another part of psychology, I suppose. I'm curious as to what happens when knowledge fails. Exactly how animal do we become by degrees?
Thirdly, I'm hoping that my interest in big data takes me towards the analysis of different kinds of knowledge than I've been looking at. In particular I'm very curious to know why medical computing has eluded our better minds.
So it has been a great million. Thanks to all of you who have been around since back in the day. There's much more to come, so stick around. Tell a friend.
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