Two Decades!

Today marks two decades since I started writing here.  It is not a coincidence that it is also twenty years since I was officially notified by Millennium Pharmaceuticals that my services would soon be no longer needed.  Millennium had a strict no social media policy. When rumors of major layoffs swirled, and especially when I was tipped off a few days early that I and nearly my entire department were getting the axe, I primed myself.  Of course, that meant twenty years ago I committed a severe breach of that social media policy, but I thought at the time I had only two weeks at risk.  Sure, they could have clipped my exit package, which was relatively generous, but I think management wasn't too worried as long as I didn't go causing trouble, as they were busy radically restructuring the company.

Plus, I had no idea what I was doing next.  Advertising my skills and knowledge was a strong motive.  Also, I had admired blogs such as Derek Lowe's In The Pipeline (especially that one), and wanted to try long form writing.  Importantly, if I planted a flag it would force my next employer to tell me to stop rather than me asking whether I could start.

It's been fun an interesting, especially when people bring hot tips or embargoed news.  The side of me that was high school newspaper editor for two years, as well as stringer photographer and high school sports writer for some local newspapers, is absolutely thrilled to be treated as a peer and source by professional journalists.  Writing this blog helped break the ice at conferences.  It's also led me to practice types of analysis, such as financial analysis, I probably wouldn't be attempting otherwise.  

I never had the goal of making money with this space, which always seemed more trouble than it is worth, but that also reflects I am lucky enough that I can get away with this.  Importantly, there was a goal to not unmake money - no big lawsuit payouts!  Sure, I've justified some self-funded conference visits, but have resisted the temptation to run-up huge journal access bills.

Someone told me yesterday that Douglas Adams had been quoted along the lines of "I love deadlines! Especially the sound of them whooshing past me!!".  I originally tried to keep a very regular cadence, but without an external enforcer that's been a struggle.  In the worst cases, I have extensive notes or even drafts that never made it to "Publish".

This year I did resolve to be more effusive in production.  In my first full year, 2007, I set a bar that seems impossibly high at 163 posts, or averaging 13.6 per month.  Even that was very uneven, with a high of 23 in January and a low of 8 in December.  But getting to second place seemed reasonable, as in 2016's year ten I hit 81 and that's not far from third place of 79 in 2009.  This piece makes 64 for this year, tied for fourth with 2011.  I don't have enough ASHG Notebook pieces to quite get to third, but there's a bunch of stubs. Perhaps I can even hit a full plate of 96 this year.  

One other milestone; this year I made my 1000th post. 

I very much appreciate all the readers who over the years have encouraged me, pushed back on me, and especially those who say these scribblings are useful.  I might claim I would do this even if shouting into a void, but realistically knowing it is actually read is an important motivator.

As the great Yogi is said to have said, prediction is hard, especially about the future.  I have no idea whether I'll still be penning these pieces twenty years hence; I'm not sure if in 2006 I expected to be still doing this in 2026.  But I certainly have no intention of quitting in the foreseeable future.  So onwards and upwards!