This is good stuff to talk about. A lot of writing discussion is driven by a progress/productivity/achievement mindset. When in fact, for short fiction, the most relevant question is: "How does this fit into my life longterm if it's just *this* forever?" https://twitter.com/ClowderofTwo/status/1286308802153897984

If you write short fiction, you can certainly be productive. But productivity doesn't lead to career progression because (for 99.99% of us) there's no such thing as momentum. You can ring the bell once or a hundred times, and it will always make basically the same sound.

There is a flip side to this though: You can't really regress either. You can stop any time you want for as long as you want... Then (years and years later) you can ring the bell again, and it will still make basically the same sound.