Fascinating take on why public intellectuals have short shelf lives:

https://scholars-stage.org/public-intellectuals-have-short-shelf-lives-but-why/

This is a big part of why I intentionally try to keep "doing foot-soldier things" (notably, coding, and exploring the world regular-person-style rather than entourage-and-limousine-style)

I think my closest example of "intellectual whose fresh takes I have consistently respected over a 10+ year time span" actually is Scott Alexander.

ya, seems to boil down to staying curious and never resting in your laurels