Meta-post

You probably noticed: I didn't do it. It turns out I picked a pretty poor week (maybe the week of your birthday celebration(s) isn't the best one for a challenge of creativity) for daily blogging, and I greatly underestimated how much effort it would take to write a post every day. Perhaps you noticed that I posted the entries just before midnight, or that I edited them significantly the next day, or that I had a hard time simultaneously keeping up with multiple threads of comments while writing the next day's post. I didn't run out of things to say--I have a post or two waiting in the wings--but rather struggled to get the ideas adequately expressed. Finally, on Thursday I just didn't get it done. Originally I intended to pick up and not let it deter me from finishing out strong for the rest of the week, but once you've failed at your goal, it's hard not to give up now. So I did.

Failures aside, it was a useful experiment. Although I ultimately succumbed to the pressure, I managed to write my way through a few complex posts in much shorter time than I usually would. I now also see the value in a few days' wait between posts. It takes a day or two for people to see the post, decide what they don't like about it, and respond; it takes a further day or two for arguments and counter-arguments to converge. A new post's arrival simply stifles the process.

So: where to go from here? Inspired by Marie and Gareth's suggestions, I'll try to occasionally post shorter, lighter, even more superficial posts. Although it's quite difficult for me, probably I can share a thought or an idea or an experience without picking its bones clean with over-analysis.

Finally, inspired by Grant's suggestion, I want to spend some time writing a series of introductory articles to particularly important (or interesting) mathematical ideas. Consider it a sort of "greatest hits" of mathematics, with an emphasis on accessibility to the lay person--sacrificing precision for intuition. Such posts will likely take a good chunk of effort from me, so I probably won't do it unless there's sufficient interest. Thus I ask: is there sufficient interest?