# 2021-11-14-2255 On Writing in decades Over the last few days, there've been two pieces [[On Writing]] that I found unusually engaging. The first is by Michael Nielsen, and is [here](https://mnielsen.github.io/wn/website_enhance.html?s=09&utm_source=pocket_mylist). There's so much I'd like to dig into in his remarkable post, but I'll confine myself to one resulting thought that has lingered with me for a few days. Nielsen makes a point about writing over a span of time that is in the order of decades. He quotes others who've made similar points (Gwern Branwen), and this concept stuck. What _does_ a writing practice look like after 50, 60 even 70 years? What could be achieved, if anything by a sustained (or even half hearted) commitment to..."thinking in writing." More alluringly, what could I achieve by a writing practice if I manage to sustain it over decades? It's tempting to say something like "a vast improvement in thinking robustness and creativity," but I'm honestly less optimistic about the outcome than that. I think the odds are ever so slightly in favour of an improvement in thinking ability, but really not by much. I think the greater value for me personally would be heavily nostalgic weighted - if I'm still writing in 50 years, the biggest payoff would be the self-entertainment of my own evolution. Even now, as I think about it, my first blog would've been almost 16 years old this year, had I not nuked it. dropsofdust.blogspot.com (what a super name, really.) was over-burdened by cringe, and therefore nuked in a moment of weakness, but it would've been fun (and painful) to read the posts of 17 year old Irshaad. A decades long project is...alluring and fantastically daunting, but (as the kids say these days), "I'm here for it" (I think)