Distill was one of the best experiments in publishing of the last decade, no irony. Unfortunately, it’s worth reflecting on why they are on a hiatus that I fear will be (understandably) permanent.

When I was an academic, I had the privilege of participating in the process of producing one article for Distill, and the amount of work was equivalent to 3-5x the work of any one single publication in other venues. I’m not sure that’s avoidable to achieve the quality that Distill strives for, but it means the incentives are all pointed against it.

A direct consequence of working on an environment with bad incentives is that people there will burn out, which is part of what I think happened.