50th Anniversaries and When I’ll Hit Them

John Scalzi · 20 Sept 2026

John Scalzi did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Rock groups rarely keep the same lineup for their entire career.

Their wordsIt's rare to have a rock group of any sort keep all the same members all the way through their run.
Our reading
AI is unlikely to end a working writer's career, barring a broader societal collapse.

Their wordsno, I don't think AI will keep me from hitting any of these anniversaries as a working writer, unless it triggers the apocalypse, in which case we have other problems.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.