This the 1,000th post on stephenkinsella.net. Summary stats show I've written, blogged, reblogged over 200,000 words, or about 3 books' worth of text, pictures, and data. Wow. 

Most people just go 'woo hoo' when they hit 1000 posts, but I'm in a reflective mood, so I thought I'd look back at what I've done since I started this blog in 2005 with this post.

I've to ask myself: why did I start this thing, when the returns to doing a blog, in academia, frankly, suck?

Reputation comes in academia from writing articles in top journals, not getting linked to a lot or getting a decent pagerank or the front page of digg.com or whatever. I don't carry advertising or sell things on this site. It eats a lot of my time. In terms of my career, I may as well have spent my time fishing or watching Manga, when it comes to actually getting a promotion out of this thing. But that's not really why I do this anymore.

First and foremost, today this blog is about me having a space to rant about things which I feel strongly about, without upsetting my wife to the point that she leaves me or, through sheer frustration, inserts the the steel object of her choice into my sternum. I also use the site to think things out. Many of the posts on the blog aren't publicly available for this very reason. They are a way for me to write my (mostly stupid) thoughts down in a searchable, linkable, space, to which I can return when I need to. Many of these bits and pieces end up in papers. This is why I used ecto up until it broke.

Second, the blog was about publicising my work, and it has done that very well. Too well, in one instance, and I'll blog about that in a month or so.

Third, the blog lets me interact with my students in a very cool way. They can get podcasts, lecture notes, links, handouts, course packs, gain insights from other students, and take surveys that make me a better lecturer. 

Fourth, and this one I didn't expect, the blog has connected me with all sorts of people I would never have met in any other way. I have helped students from Botswana with their homework, bounced ideas off a finance minister, listened to people actually experiencing a hyperinflation, and talked with secondary students about economics here in Ireland and why it is more relevant and important than ever to study the right sort of economics, broadly conceived. I've written several pieces requested by readers of the blog. I've discovered Web 2.0 stuff like Twitter through users of the site, and nerded it up on the site to a degree I never thought possible. I've also gotten paid work from readers of the site, but honestly, the sums have been paltry relative to the work required to maintain the thing.

Fifth, I've been sent loads of books and software to review because of the blog, and that's great, keep 'em coming. 

Sixth, the blog has allowed me a platform for just plain out there ideas which wouldn't see the light of day anywhere else. 

So that's why I started this thing. Mostly, it began as wholesale publicity-hungry givemeajobnow-type whorebaggery, but it's more than that now. At least a little more. Wow.

How things have changed.

Since starting this blog in 2005, I've

• Gotten married;
• Had 2 kids, Arran (2) and Cillian (5 months). I've lost all the weight already. It's genetic*. 
• Gotten a tenured job at UL;
• Moved 3 times, once across a continent;
• Learned to drive;
• Bought a house, bought a car, used said car to fill said house to brim with crap, mostly kiddie-themed;
• Finished 1 M.A., 1M.Phil, 1 Ph.D, one more PhD on the way;
• Written 11 articles under review, 5 published or forthcoming, 2 technical reports, 6 book reviews and more in the pipeline.
• Gone to 21 conferences. Organised 4 of those.
• Applied for funding 6 times, been turned down 5 times. Two more applications should be in before Christmas;
• Supervised 3 completed Msc theses, 15+ FYPs, and started supervising my first IRCHSS-funded PhD student, Dominic Trepel;
• Been offered, and accepted, one book deal (details of which I'll post at a later date);
• Had my work mentioned all over the place in print and online media;

And that's just off the top of my head. Wow.

What's next?

Well, I like the direction of the blog so far (theory/policy/lecture notes/ranting), but right now I blog too much. I might reduce down to Monday-Wednesday-Friday blogging rather than 7 days a week, as it is now. Main reason? The returns to writing this blog are much, much lower than the returns to writing other things like books, book chapters, and articles. So I'm planning on diverting my time towards those. I gots them kids to feed, yo.

Second, I'd like to begin writing longer, stephenfry-esque blessays rather than the 300 word posts I average, just because I think economic ideas, when written well, take that length to tease out properly. 

Third, I'm going to look into all the Web 2.0 and powerpoint stuff I do for the students right now. Some students use the podcasts of the lectures, for example, but far from all. 

Fourth, I'm going to try to integrate more student feedback to the site. 

Fifth, I'm going to keep blogging, positive returns or not. I enjoy doing it, it makes me better at what I do. That's enough.

* This is a lie.