Shelf life: 2 years?

Rob Hyndman asks some interesting questions about how long a blogger can blog. He links to Phil Sim, who suggests that two years is the maximum for any sustained creative effort (he's talking about the "tech blogosphere," whatever that is, but he's drawing from his general experience writing and editing):

When I was an editor, two years was always as long as I felt I could give a job. After two years you find yourself recycling the same old stories, writing the same old opinion pieces, producing covers that looked like something else you did last year. I like to live under the delusion that I could find an angle on a flag pole but at that two year mark, I run dry. Actually, I reckon you start to run dry after 12 months but you can probably hang on for another year with selective recycling.

A lot of your more interesting bloggers will be hitting that point now. They'll be writing something thinking 'god, this sounds like that other post I did about…' On top of that, their families might be starting to tire of the old, 'As soon as I've finished this blog post' routine ....

Me, I'll hit my two-year anniversary on May 10 (oops, did I just recycle an old post?). I don't feel tapped out yet, but I will make this promise: I won't post unless I'm impelled to say something. And I'll remember the most important lesson I draw from my experience running marathons: Pace yourself.

Comments

[oyster]

Hey, I started blogging May 10th 2004 as well! How 'bout that?

Currently I'm running on fumes and, unlike N.O., am recycling like crazy.

A new habit is clearly in order.