I did 50 claps for this article because of the many salient points using data, the literacy, the suggested philosophy and the acknowledgment that for the longest time I didn’t even know about “extra” claps. I learned about 1, 5 or 50 claps because someone thought my one clap was an insult and only then I realized “oh, dah”. The bottom line is reading (and writing) is a creative, reflective, time and effort chosen task and Americans live to a substantial degree in a TikTok and Netflix world. Maybe I’m too idealistic but I don’t think Tolstoy, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky, Huxley, blah, blah were thinking about claps but even as it typed this I laughed at myself and thought, “Well, Shakespeare had to think about laughs, claps and ticket sales”. So have through the ages minstrels and storytellers. Um. Ok. I’ll reach this compromise for myself. Even the most visceral immediate feedback artists, stand up comedians who write their own material (I’m thinking of George Carlin), have to find a place more meaningful than “claps” because every successful stand up comedian I’ve heard interviewed had to find a place where they were willing to live through the groans and dying on stage in order to persevere in their craft. It’s not all claps.