First of all, we do all suck. Granted.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
Second of all, the author is totally right about how inhumanly impossible it is to generate genuinely original ideas on a twice-weekly pace.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
But as a mild counterpoint, here's something a *very* veteran columnist said to me when I was starting out.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
"It's a mistake," he said, "to think of your readers as all turning to you religiously twice a week, eager for *your* particular new idea."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
"You'll have readers like that, sure. Your fellow journalists, maybe some people in politics and government, some diehard fans."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
"But you write for a newspaper. It's a public service, but also a disposable entertainment product. And most people who read it ..."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
"... do so haphazardly, intermittently, reading particular columns randomly rather than intentionally, barely noticing your byline."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
"So if you're afraid of repeating yourself -- well, you will. But many of your readers are only reading, say, one column in five."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
"And that idea that you think is stale, if it's a *good* idea, might always be fresh to someone. So don't be ashamed of returning to it."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
I thought there was wisdom there. Self-justifying wisdom, to be sure. But it's made me feel a little better about sucking. /Finis
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I think J.K. Galbraith's advice to W.F. Buckley was good: take a sabbatical from column writing every few few years & do a big serious book
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