> When I started this blog – 17 years ago! – I installed WordPress’s analytics plugin

I wrote that plugin and the backend service. That wasn’t my original idea. It started as something else: a plugin for adding your blog to a traffic ranking site called Blogs of the Day. It didn’t focus on analytics for bloggers, it published lists of blogs ranked by traffic. It was meant to help readers find interesting blogs. It was good until it got gamed by low-quality content with iframes and scripts. Automattic bought it and hired me and then I wrote the Stats plugin.

I agree with the author. But this is just an attitude about personal publishing, not a fact. It’s also fine to hold the opposite attitude and to seek validation through data, and even to adapt oneself accordingly.

There is a hierarchy of informative audience reactions to a blog. A page view is an extremely weak signal carrying very little information. Likes and other emoji reactions are slightly more informative. Comments are even more. If you aren’t getting comments and likes on your personal blog, maybe the page views are enough validation for you.

I don’t know, I just don’t care for my own personal blogging anymore. When I did, I was probably seeking human connection out of loneliness. Before blog analytics existed, I made friends through blog comments.

Analytics didn’t result in social connections but it did tickle the reward function. That’s why it exists.