Regret

One of the many differences between women and men, at least on the right-hand side of the IQ bell curve, is that men will have a thought and pursue it relentlessly via blogging, while women often have better things to do than to try to promote their ideas or fight for credit when an insight is finally pushing its way into conventional wisdom.  For example, Half Sigma/Lion of the Blogosphere is really good about reminding his readers of his predictive “hits,” and good on him for doing so.  Steve Sailer makes sure that he points out when and where his ideas are appropriated by more mainstream writers.  This is very masculine behavior. 

Back when my daughter was first born, I began to suspect that the whole “breast is best” campaign was ultimately some status competition between elite women and working class women.  I even made some tentative comments on other people’s blogs, but never pursued it vigorously.  I was roundly and personally attacked for this thought, and I backed down, because I did not want anyone to dislike me.  I wish I had fought for my ideas now that more and more evidence is coming out that breastfeeding studies were incorrect or misused.  Of course, everyone wants credit for something they did not work for, and I didn’t even really try to nail this idea down on my own blog.