I just saw that I’d written 2,999 blog posts, so that makes this one the 3,000th. About a year ago was the 10th anniversary, and Tim Hopper wrote his retrospective about my blog.
In addition to chronological blog posts, there are about 200 “pages” on the site, mostly technical notes. These include the most popular content on the site.
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The following is a rambling discussion of things that have changed over the history of the blog.
I started out posting a little more than once a day on average. I’ve slowed down a little, but I still wrote about 300 posts over the last year. My posts are getting a little longer. They’re still fairly short, but a little longer than they used to be.
I’ve also started using more footnotes. That has worked out well, letting me write for two audiences at the same time: those who want a high-level overview and those who want technical details.
More people are reading from mobile devices, so I moved to a responsive design. I also use more SVG images because they look great across a variety of platforms.
HTTPS has become more common, and I switched to HTTPS a while back.
Google nearly killed RSS when it killed the most popular RSS reader. I announce most of my posts on Twitter because Twitter has sorta taken the place of RSS. You can still subscribe by RSS, and many do, but not as many as before the demise of Google Reader.
I’ve been writing more about privacy and security lately because I’m doing more work with privacy and security.
I was reluctant to start blogging, but I gave it a chance after several people exhorted me to do it. I was especially hesitant to allow comments, but the signal to noise ratio has been a pleasant surprise (aside from the millions of comments blocked by my spam filter). I’ve learned a lot from your feedback. I’ve met a lot of friends and clients through the blog and am very glad I started it.
I see a lot of interesting things from both your blog posts and your twitter feed. I sometimes wonder how you find the time, but — thank you!
300 posts a year on average is an impressive achievement. Kudos.
Your blog is one of the most valuable pieces of the Internet, although I must admit I can only grasp a fraction of it. Advanced statistics scares me!
P.S. RSS is not dead and will never be.
This is one of my favorite blogs, there’s always something interesting to learn and I love the length and frequency of the posts. Just right. Thank you for the effort you put into this.
I really like this blog, thanks for all the effort you put into it.
And thanks for still having an RSS feed – I use Feedly and wouldn’t really know when this gets updated without the RSS! (Twitter is just too noisy for me)
Keep doing what you are doing John.
And remember, even though we may not all leave a comment, there are *many* of us still reading what you have to say.
And rest assured, every time I Google something mathamatically related, sure enough, a certain “John D Cook” more often than not appears at the top of my searches!
It was your “output” that made me realise people think about math *every single day*, and it was a breeze to them. Very inspiring…
I’ve been trying to create a list of the specific things I’ve learned from this blog, but the only hard number I have is bookmarked entries in my “Want to Learn / Need to Follow-up” list: 87 posts!
In general, about 20% of your posts go past me at super-luminal speeds. I think I recognize the language as English, but I am not sure. At the other end of the spectrum, perhaps 30% I completely follow (you do lots of fairly straightforward posts).
The remaining 50% are the ones that are somewhat within my grasp, where your description determines how relevant I feel the content is to my work or interests, and if it gets bookmarked for future attention. Truth be told, I rarely revisit those bookmarks.
More often, the act of bookmarking serves to (hopefully) improve my memory of being exposed to the topic in the first place. It builds my vocabulary (and buzzword-compliance), which is useful when a vague memory arises in a mathy situation, prompting me to search Google with a “site:johndcook.com” specifier.
Congratulations, John! Your blog is an internet treasure. Thanks for all you do. It was a pleasure (briefly) working with you a couple years ago.
I present this Dr. Octagon track to celebrate your 3,000th post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sBI60bV-A8
(Hip-hop, but features no swearing. Turn it up!)
Thanks for a very interesting blog.