Conor gets it exactly right here. Max and the Post profile are both absolutely right about the importance of regular, frequent posting, but Matt isn't successful simply because he posts so often. He is so successful because he posts incredibly high quality content (along all the dimensions Conor names) AND because he posts so frequently.…
Conor gets it exactly right here. Max and the Post profile are both absolutely right about the importance of regular, frequent posting, but Matt isn't successful simply because he posts so often. He is so successful because he posts incredibly high quality content (along all the dimensions Conor names) AND because he posts so frequently. It's really quite astounding.
A great comparison is Jonathan Chait, who I think writes content that is of similar quality to Matt's. And while both of them are folks I agree with a lot, Chait is someone who I generally enjoy more for a few reasons (he's closer to my age, is an actual sports fan, shares my understanding for why charters are so important, and has a better sense of humor). Having said all that, if I had to choose to read only one or the other, there is no doubt that it would be Matt. Because as much as I like Chait, I'm guessing he writes only a quarter as often.
If he wrote less often, I'm sure Matt could raise the average quality of his pieces a bit. What's extraordinary about Matt is that he's able to keep his quality at such a high bar despite writing as often as he does.
Just one more point. The only blogger I have read that is comparable to Matt in terms of being able to write incredibly frequently while maintaining a high bar for quality was Andrew Sullivan at the height of the Daily Dish.
Having said that, comparing the two is instructive. Andrew is the more gifted writer, and his abillity to speak personally and from the heart takes his writing at times to a height that I don't think Matt has ever reached. But Andrew is also all over the place depending on his mood, gets things genuinely wrong in a way that Matt does not, and ended up having to retire from regular writing for a long time (and now writes far less frequently with more vacations from ever) because he couldn't sustain that pace. And yet Matt keeps going year after year after year without the quality of his work ever faltering. It really is impressive.
Conor gets it exactly right here. Max and the Post profile are both absolutely right about the importance of regular, frequent posting, but Matt isn't successful simply because he posts so often. He is so successful because he posts incredibly high quality content (along all the dimensions Conor names) AND because he posts so frequently. It's really quite astounding.
A great comparison is Jonathan Chait, who I think writes content that is of similar quality to Matt's. And while both of them are folks I agree with a lot, Chait is someone who I generally enjoy more for a few reasons (he's closer to my age, is an actual sports fan, shares my understanding for why charters are so important, and has a better sense of humor). Having said all that, if I had to choose to read only one or the other, there is no doubt that it would be Matt. Because as much as I like Chait, I'm guessing he writes only a quarter as often.
If he wrote less often, I'm sure Matt could raise the average quality of his pieces a bit. What's extraordinary about Matt is that he's able to keep his quality at such a high bar despite writing as often as he does.
Just one more point. The only blogger I have read that is comparable to Matt in terms of being able to write incredibly frequently while maintaining a high bar for quality was Andrew Sullivan at the height of the Daily Dish.
Having said that, comparing the two is instructive. Andrew is the more gifted writer, and his abillity to speak personally and from the heart takes his writing at times to a height that I don't think Matt has ever reached. But Andrew is also all over the place depending on his mood, gets things genuinely wrong in a way that Matt does not, and ended up having to retire from regular writing for a long time (and now writes far less frequently with more vacations from ever) because he couldn't sustain that pace. And yet Matt keeps going year after year after year without the quality of his work ever faltering. It really is impressive.