I pursued a new career. It required entirely different mental muscles. My interests changed, and this affected my readership. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in 3.5 years, while I raised kids and obsessed unhealthily over research outside my major for half of the time, but muh perseverance earned me a better degree, and improved my understanding of my field altogether. I am purposefully NOT revealing what new studies and interests I explored, nor am I naming the particular discipline in which I obtained new skill sets and perspective. The generic expression of data below is intended to illustrate an unbiased change.
One thing that boosted my readership beforehand was a certain, iterative series of posts upon two certain subjects of topical interest which I abandoned due to the necessity to devote all of my hours to study. These two subjects require supplies and cash flow. It was a need to watch the dollars which made the painful choice to destroy my traffic by 90%, consistently, more logical.
In 2014, I had a LOT of free time in between careers, and I had a high output of hobby-related posts that had been a core part of my lifestyle for a number of years.
In 2015, I enrolled at a college, but momentum carried readership forward for a short while, and sporadic support of said dead ” iterative series of posts upon two certain subjects of topical interest” remained an ache in my soul. I had to continue to try to produce, but the quality and quantity were both diminishing rapidly, the latter more than the former.
I signed NDAs for some of the work I did, so I made sure that certain topics remained excised from publication, or indeed, even bookmarking with notes. I gathered formulas. I studied algorithms. I tested robotic equipment, and then I sort of crashed my computer in Spring 2018. It took a few months to sort out and improve. I have a backup laptop, and some PIs, but I hate loading content to web pages with a Pi. I would rather just use PIs with field devices, dependent MCUs. See how quickly none of this becomes interesting?
People occasionally need to accept what is happening, adapt to deliver results the best they can, and never, ever give up.
That being said, I still love to ______ and _____, and I found no reason to abandon the things which I felt had value. More than anything, change has taught me to persevere. Struggle has given me a greater appreciation of the struggles of other people in industries I never understood before. I have a better understanding of a wider audience.
I ditched Facebook. These posts go on Twitter, but that’s basically a black hole for me.
Fifty State Banana 