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Medium Is Not a Contest Amongst Writers
Who are we kidding…of course it is
Uncontrollable jealousy
It’s okay to get jealous of Tim Denning, Umair Haque, and Jessica Wildfire because they’re doing what we all want to do —making enough money writing to pay the bills.
It’s therapeutic to admit you secretly wish their writing careers crash and burn, not because you’re some evil, crazed, psychopathic maniac, but because you are highly jealous.
Are we fighting for a piece of a finite pie?
Of course, Medium could keep growing and I think their new “share the subscription revenue” is succeeding.
Regardless, it is unclear what percentage of Medium’s subscription revenue is shared downstream with us.
If it’s a zero-sum game we do have a sort of Hunger Games, survival of the fittest, scheme going on, whereas the only way to increase our views is by subtracting views from other writers.
Defining good
Writing is unique from other art forms in that it is created, edited, published, and consumed in solitude.
Sure, people review books and there are numerous writing awards that attempt to quantify the elements of good writing and reward them.
