On a general note, finance is kinda confidential similar to the lowest clearances in the military/government, e.g. "you can talk to each other, but keep a low profile outside of work". Would you have written a blog under your real name discussing your work/environment when you where in the military?
That's an interesting point. When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I was frequently intimidated (by seniors) into not speaking my mind. If I'd been blogging in the 1980s-90s, I would have picked some pseudonym like "CDR Salamander" and hoped to not be outed.
But a funny thing happened in 1993 at age 33. A snarky commentary that I'd written for one senior officer (who would've allowed me the indulgence) got misrouted into the hands of another senior officer who didn't appreciate reading my truthful (unvarnished) feedback. I got my ass chewed out pretty good by both of them, and I was surprised to discover that they had no effect. I'd been outed but I didn't care and it actually felt pretty good to clear the air. It made me feel even better when "truth" came to pass and I turned out to be right. I wasn't prescient but I could certainly forecast the inevitable.
If I'd been blogging in the later 1990s, I would've done it under my real name. I also would've discussed my work/environment (politely, respectfully) as part of the conversation. The Navy even has slogans for it like "Nobody asked me but...", "Dare to think, read, and write", and "forceful backup". By then of course I knew that I wasn't going to be promoted further, so hypothetically I had little to lose. Perhaps if I'd started speaking up earlier in my career then I would have been more likely to promote. I'll never know. But maybe someone will read this and be inspired to start speaking up earlier in their career.
By the late 1990s I was getting my ass chewed several times per year for speaking my mind. Some COs didn't appreciate it while others took advantage of my frankness to guide the discussion for their own purposes. The unexpected side effect of my outspoken habits was that my co-workers and subordinates felt that I was sticking up for them and taking care of them. "Truth" became a lot more common in my office, and bad news was usually dealt with right away instead of spinning it or letting it fester. Getting my ass chewed was a minor price to pay for the outsize benefits.
I'll torture the finance/military analogy a little further. In most of American society, it's not polite to discuss finances. In the workplace it's not considered polite to discuss salary, and sometimes it's downright forbidden. This baffles me because my compensation was always on a website for the entire world to view, and my resume/payscale was attached to my uniform with insignia & ribbons. When you glanced at me in the passageway you could tell my seniority, where I'd been for duty, what I'd done there, and what my salary was before you even saw my nametag. If you wanted what I had, you knew what you had to do to earn it.
So maybe workplaces and supervisors need to hear more "truth", and maybe finances should be talked about more openly. Maybe if ERE was more openly discussed then there wouldn't be a need for barriers.
Even today I write about things that I "shouldn't". A few months ago I wrote a long thread on Early-Retirement.org about a problematic non-profit, and eventually the "truth" got back to the chairman of the board of directors. He was most unappreciative and we'll never be friends again... but his behavior changed a little for the better. Even more beneficial was the support that I got (both on the thread and in the PMs) from other members of E-R.org. A lot of that non-profit's problems got solved by my speaking up, even if I (in retrospect) went further than I probably should have. Now I'm not so sure-- maybe I actually went as far as I needed to.
You say you're turned off by guiding conversations and "managing the public relations aspect". I'd say that feeling is worth some introspection. When I get that mud-dragging response from the general public then I feel it's another opportunity to explain, and in an hour or two another blog post pops out of my keyboard. Maybe it's from all those years of hypercritical nuclear inspections and the thick skin they helped me develop. Maybe it's perceiving criticism as another opportunity to clarify & teach, not only as mud-dragging.
Colleagues have a choice. They can be praised through association, or not mentioned, or even mocked. Their behavior dictates their choice at least as much as their request. Again, your company has hired a guy who's already getting 100K pageviews per month. PR professionals would commit misdemeanors for that built-in social-media exposure. It's totally ethical to write truthfully about your co-worker's public behavior, although society may deem it "impolite". If they had to read about their behavior on the front page of the newspaper then maybe they'd behave more ethically, too. Or you could choose to praise those who've behaved in a praiseworthy manner and never mention the ones who behave negatively. Let 'em wonder. Let 'em start their own blogs.
Maybe you see blogging as management & sales. I see it as education and even training. It's living by example. So to torture another analogy, if you feel that you've run out of things to teach people then are you still living a happy life?
I'll give you another example: Bob Clyatt of "Work Less, Live More". He's much more interested in sculpting than in writing a new edition or another book. In some ways he's even more of a public figure as a sculptor than as a writer, and perhaps much more vulnerable to criticism. But some people start their voyage of ER discovery by seeing him livin' the dream, even before they realize that he spends his day with naked women models.
Again, I can understand your decision to drop out and regain a measure of privacy. But when you do that, you abdicate the management of your ERE image and your ERE work to those same people who you felt were dragging your name through the mud.
It seems to me that you had to endure a significant life change for the opportunity to pursue your financial engineering hobby. It seems to me that you gave up significant control & flexibility over your time. It seems you had to leave SF and friends behind for the opportunity represented by Chicago and new friends. I've moved over a dozen times with the military and I understand the impact. Today I try to imagine what in the world would excite me to leave my home, my surfing beach, my friends, my routine, and everything else that I've enjoyed for the last decade. I cannot-- let alone be willing to give up some degree of control over my time and my liberty.
Lots of other people can't imagine it either, and I'm sure the critics think it's because ERE wasn't working out for you... or even worse, that it doesn't work for anyone.
It looks like there's a lot of ERE still to be written about. I hope to read it someday.