Exactly 20 years ago I wrote my first blogpost, ‘a blogging 2004’. I wasn’t using WordPress yet (but something called pMachine), and this blog was not called ‘neverendingbooks’, but ‘matrix.ua.ac.be’ (the URL of the mac still running this blog).
At the time I wanted to find out whether blogging was something for me. “I’m just starting out. Give me a couple of weeks/months to develop my own style and topics and I’ll change the layout accordingly.”
Well, after 20 years I know what I can, and more important, what I cannot do within this framework. Time to move on.
There are other reasons why this might be the right time to pull the plug.
– I’m on retirement since October 1st and soon I’ll have to vacate my office, containing the webserver on which NeB runs.
– My days are filled with more activities now, and I don’t think you want to read here for example about my struggles with chestnut-farming.
– I like to explore other channels to talk about mathematics. This may happen on Mathstodon, MathOverflow or YouTube. Or it might be through teaching or writing a book, perhaps even a children’s book.
NeB will remain reachable until mid 2024. I’ll check out options to preserve its content after that (suggestions are welcome).
I wish you a better 2024.
WBM
How sad! Thank you so so much for sharing all the things you’ve shared over the years. I’ve been following your blog for quite a bit of time, and I’ve seen the many shapes it’s taken throughout the years. You’ve been my main source of Bourbaki and Grothendieck stories, and last year I discovered Twenty One Pilots thanks to you, which was one of the year’s highlights for me.
Many thanks again, have a wonderful retirement, and keep well.
@Theoreticalminimum Thanks! No worries, I’ll still be digging up new Bourbaki-stories, but probably turn them into clips rather than posts (the TØP/Bourbaki posts would have been more enticing in a video format).
Another longer term project is to write a Bourbaki Travel Guide, or rather two: one part for Paris B-related stuff, the other for Bourbaki places in the ‘province’.
If either of these materialises in the coming months I’ll post about it here.
Can you get it all into the Internet Archive, at least? It was disappointing when your G+ posts vanished, as there were some really valuable ones that are still linked from here.