> I recall someone saying the following in a conference, which stuck with me (paraphrasing): "If you write something down and nobody ever reads it, those keypresses are sort of wasted."
Only if you are looking at objective contribution to the world/conversation. What you don't see, and is not measurable by clicks or page-views or any other kind of real metric, is how you changed yourself by writing.
As others have notice, when you write something, your are practicing -- no, developing -- your writing and language skills and you are re-inforcing your understanding of the subject (why do you think teachers made you write essays at school/uni/college? Not so they can grade you, but so you learn).
Only if you are looking at objective contribution to the world/conversation. What you don't see, and is not measurable by clicks or page-views or any other kind of real metric, is how you changed yourself by writing.
As others have notice, when you write something, your are practicing -- no, developing -- your writing and language skills and you are re-inforcing your understanding of the subject (why do you think teachers made you write essays at school/uni/college? Not so they can grade you, but so you learn).