I’m on the side of “not a waste of time”. I am excited to hear you talk about this tomorrow and to see what my colleagues think.

I see this repeated all the time, and it confounds me. The food (other than the brisket) is fabulous for those of us not invested in the purest of pure Texan BBQ.

I don’t care that much about the blogging question, sorry.

Meritocratic inclusiveness, honesty – I say no. With one exception: Western Dave’s point. Echoed by others. A blog like yours is useful for him and others in similar situations.

Waste of time – not at all. But then, I don’t do academic blogging, my blog is personal and arty, so it occupies a different space than academic work. It’s done a lot for me personally, though. Meanwhile, I read academic blogs and learn a lot from them. It’s not the same kind of reading as reading journals. But it’s often the water cooler talk I need, when water cooler talk on the topic I need it on is not the topic locally. I learn useful things.

What I really wish is that blogs had existed when I was an assistant professor. I found everything so odd back then, and I had questions nobody would answer usefully, because I already knew the standard answers and nobody was willing to give other, more applicable answers. I routinely see new people ask questions like the ones I had, anonymously or pseudonymously, and get very useful anonymous or pseudonymous input and information. This is fantastic, I think.

Thanks for your compliments, Western Dave, koshem Bos and truffula, and everyone! (Again, I really wasn’t fishing. I’ve been asked to talk about this!) Roxie got it mostly right above–I don’t *think* this blog in particular is a waste of my time and I hope it’s not too much of a waste of yours! But I think that has to do with the fact that I’m a relatively isolated scholar whose research interests are marginal rather than central to her department. I’ll report more on this after my talk at UT on Thursday, but I think that the blog has value although (like Dr. Crazy) it’s not something I report on my annual evaluation.

There is value in some labor even if one doesn’t necessarily get “credit” for it. Many readers and commenters like to cook fresh food at home, for example–this is something that might to some people look like a “waste of time,” especially if they live in well-served urban areas with lots of carry-out salads and a tremendous array of carry-out food. Those of us whose culinary (or intellectual) options are more limited may find it worthwhile to cook or blog.

(I know it’s not a great analogy, but it’s been a long but extremely productive day conferencing and I iz tierd.)

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Most opinion blogs are a waste of time both reading and writing. Most blogs are badly written and the ideas they convey are negligible or worse. There are some excellent opinion blogs that are worth reading; blogs such as this one, Nake Capitalism, Krugman’s, New Deal 2, John Quiggin and the now sporadic Arglachel. Clearly, there may be other excellent blogs I haven’t encountered.