The blog will no longer be open for new comments. The reason is partially motivated by the annoying fact that comments invite spam (leading to the site being shutdown for several hours today) but also because the blog posts are mainly being kept around as an archive.

You already know that most posts were written between 2007 and 2011 after which 99.95% (<- exact calculation) have been recycled. This has often led to confusion to people who haven't read the About pages.

What’s important is that at this point a blog is not a very suitable platform for me for several reasons.

1) A blog is literally a [we]b-log and thus most suitable for a project that’s work-in-progress. The blog format provides timely development along with user-feedback on this progress. As you know, figuring out ERE hasn’t been a work-in-progress for me since 2010 when I finished the book. I no longer think consciously about ERE. I live it without thinking about it just like a child who has learned how to walk doesn’t think about moving their legs or how it was to crawl around. We now live in a house and I spend less than $6000/year!

2) Describing a coherent theory is better done in a book format. This has been done too. Go read it. I leave the blog mainly as an archive of my “research notes” for this. I’m pleased to note that several of the concepts originally described here are now making their way into the blogosphere echo chamber.

3) Most importantly, ERE is no longer just about one person’s biography. Over the years it has developed into a community of people; each with their own goals. It’s readily recognized that following prescriptive to-do plans is never going to work for an ERE strategy and that each person needs to devise their own plan. For this kind of interaction, forums are much superior to blogs. This is why I’m still very active on the forum.

By shutting down further comments I also avoid some of the natural confusion for those who haven’t read the About pages or at least nobody gets to observe such confusion. Most importantly, it cuts down on the blog maintenance.

I do want to thank anyone who has ever commented (except for a small number of trolls, who, like spammers, function to make the internet worse). The comments provide a lot of value and if you have some inclination to read all the blog posts, I strongly recommend reading the blog comments as well. However, I think we’ve managed to translate that value into the forums.