The need to write and the need to revise would seem to derive from the same impulse. The need to publish might quickly follow shortly after. But with age the need to publish has relaxed to a great extent, for me at least. In the last 7 or 8 years I have written only one piece that could be called new. And since retiring the need to revise has become almost overwhelming. I am well aware that others who write or who even do not necessarily write but who consider themselves excellent readers sometime think they have a right to shape or improve the offerings you make. Maybe that's what you mean Bill, when you say "It only a problem when they say everyone should believe as they do, or when they draw inferences about general reality and assume their skill enables them to make value statements". But it's all part of any writing community and although posting a revision and then becoming non-interactive would be rather pointless. In the end everyone and their ideas seem more bearable when you know what is being considered will be shortly reforming itself anyway.
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