Off the wall question here, but I clicked on your Scopes link and read that reusing bits and pieces of your former writing is considered self-plagiarizing and unethical.

I’ve never heard that before, and as a popular rather than academic writer, I self plagiarize all the time.

Is there some particular reason why this is considered something that should not be done? I mean, obviously, I give myself permission to reuse my own material.

So why should that be anybody’s business other than my own?