14 Comments

i know what you mean… the average life of my blog posts so in the last few years has been ~1 year. have you deleted many of that old writing, or have you kept it up?

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i've kept it up! i just don't want to start playing that game

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no feeling is final: cherishing one’s early work with some degree of self-kindness is key to keep going

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so you say this, and yet i mostly don't cherish my early work, and here i am — i think dissatisfaction is a great motivator!

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Is this true? I think I've read something "never go full buddhist" from you and it left something in me. Now I want to reread but couldn't find it anywhere

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Nov 4·edited Nov 4

Really?!? I've been v. impressed by your recent (? who notices the pub. date?) writing, especially Deep Okayness. But I do think that if you never embarrass your future self, you should think hard about your venturesomeness. For example, I actually wrote this last April: The 2024 Election is Over (https://steveupstill.medium.com/the-2024-election-is-over-a4080e25a5c0). I've thought about deleting it, but I've resisted thus far. By now, it feels like a confession.

But seriously, "Almost everything..." That feels like it's coming from a place of disdain, which is next door to arrogance. Wee suggestion: why don't you play with annotating 50 Things I Know?

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I figure if recording artists have to tolerate their entire back catalogue being available at all times then I can do the same and let people decide what lands for them.

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Tell us, your friends over internet, what these dozen pieces are!!

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Half jokingly this is why I dyed my hair Blonde and then Copper -- some version of a chance to my external 'skin' to signal to people they are meeting a new version of me. To evoke some curiosity to update their priors. It's a constant work to figure out what past material should be integrated or tossed going forward. I hope our society sees that all of us are in Big Change and what we believed in the past might have just been a point in time and evolves as we go forward.

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I evolved from being religious (and a professional one even) to not being religious (yet appreciating all faiths and none) and so my old writings are so different…you seem well balanced about it. I feel fine about it too, I remember it all, and I’m just different now. The only regret is the inevitable leaving behind of people who can’t journey with you or you with them. It’s the same as with childhood friends.

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I really respect this article shining light on you changing.

Still I have one pressing question on my mind: the Dems paid you in '16 to write on your blog against Trump -- or do you mean, you regret following tribal, liberal mainstream opinions about Trump?

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I respect your work tremendously, and yet I am also thankful that I didn't blog in my twenties, haha.

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This is why I wished I wrote more when younger. More midnight scoffing material

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The writing of my past is bad, but I could not be a better writer today without it.

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