That is a bummer, makes me wish I hadn't let the unread count from The Dish grow so large in recent months. Not too many writers who can argue so eloquently and respectfully on politics.<p>When I didn't agree with his perspective I always found it extremely useful to read an honest and solid argument against my own position. I think you can ask no more from a writer than to challenge your assumptions, improve your reasoning skills and help foster empathy for those with whom you disagree.
> The second is that I am saturated in digital life and I want to return to the actual world again.<p>A very familiar sentiment shared by myself and many of my peers who are in the technical field. Nostalgic feelings are clearly on the rise, and in fact I think this might be a good thing... and it reinforces my own feeling that "The Internet" might one day be regarded as nothing more than a phase that simply faded in and out of our human evolution.
Oh this makes me sad. There are very few modern American voices on politics that usually make as much sense and are as well thought out as Andrew Sullivan's. It will be a loss not to hear his opinion everyday. His reasons for leaving are, of course, understandable.<p>I feel like Ta-Nehisi Coates Matthew Yglesias, and Johnathan Chait are the only other voices that come close.
I've seen several other journalists/bloggers/media-people react to this news as if Andrew's decision was clearly driven by structural economic factors rather than a more benign desire to step away from blogging as his primary form of writing. Ben Smith--of, yes, Buzzfeed--seemed to interpret this as the death knell of independent internet commentary.<p>What's going on here? I think we can agree we're all sad Andrew Sullivan is quitting The Dish, but are we symbolically sad over what that blog represented which will now never exist again, or are we just sad that a pretty great blogger won't be blogging any more?
I've been a reader of the Dish for 15 years. I've always been astounded at both the quality and quantity of writing Andrew produces. I wouldn't be surprised if wrote more than any other blogger (among those who are actually read).<p>One thing I've admired him for was he was one of the few high profile supporters of the Iraq war who changed his mind and publicly announced it.<p>I can't say I'm surprised, his announcement is perfectly understandable!
One of the biggest values I got from the Dish was as a news aggregation service that I <i>trust</i>, and that is the thing that might put me in the wind looking for a replacement for some time.<p>Andrew identifies as a conservative of some flavor, which I certainly am not. As a result, on the days that I only have 20 minutes to spend on current events, getting the news from his site made me feel like I am doing something right.<p>What other comparable resources exist?
Man, this sucks. I'm hoping, out of loyalty to his staff and readers, he'll keep the thing going but maybe take a back seat. When he took a month off a while back, his guest bloggers did a pretty good job and his full-time staff does a great job of finding interesting content. This is a model of journalism that I can really get behind and it would be such a waste to let the whole thing just fade away.
Knowing nothing about this person I thought It was a woman:
"I want to spend some real time with my parents, while I still have them, with my husband ...".<p>He/She wants to write a book and has time for his family and take care of his health.<p>The writer seems to be very good: A world of mass intimacy
with their reader, he loves them, he cares and that is the reason I find so hard to go away.