4 Things I Learned From Reading 1100 Articles On Medium

The Internet is a wonderful place.

I know what you are thinking.

Is he insane?

Luckily I’m not but still, 1000+ articles is a lot. A decent amount of time went into reading these articles. I also commented on most of them which do add to the time spent on the app.

Why did I do this?

First and foremost, because I needed it. Medium is a crazy place. You can find absolutely everything, however niche or broad it is. And I was at a point in my life (I technically still am) where I needed exposure to new ideas from new people.

My biggest fear in life is stagnation. From a biological point of view, stagnation is death. And I want to avoid that by all means. And before discovering Medium, it’s fair to say that I was settling and complacent in my stagnation.

One choice changed everything. I decided to expose myself to new things. I also decided to expose myself by writing on the platform as well. I’ve spent some time reflecting on my journey and Medium.

I truly think it’s a place where you can find amazing pieces. But it’s also a platform where clickbait articles will attract more people than one might want.

Here are the 4 takeaways I’ve learned from spending so much time here.

Everyone Is A Writer

When we think about Medium we usually think about the big writers on the platform. The one with tens of thousands of followers. And they are great. But there are hidden gems in the small writers on this platform.

I’ve been blown away by some articles with only a few claps. Even no claps at all sometimes.

And the people who wrote these great pieces cannot be put in one box. They all come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives on life.

One thing that unites them is the willingness to share their experience.

If you read articles on Medium, try to get exposed to these small writers. And when you find a great article with a few claps, give it 50. You’ll help this writer get exposure.

And you will also tell the Medium algorithm that you want to see more pieces like this one.

Learn From The Great

There is no getting around it, 1% of writers on Medium aggregate 99% of the views.

This is not specific to Medium, any social platform works that way. It might be frustrating at first but there is a good reason for it.

They produce great content.

I’m talking about the Tim Dennings , Ayodeji Awosikas, Sean Kernans, and Jessica Wildfires of Medium

You might not always agree with what they write, and that’s fine. But you cannot deny that nearly every time you are being served a great story. Something that can captivate you for a few minutes in our attention-deprived world.

There is no reason to fight the same. Work with it. Embrace it. You can learn a lot from their writing. The pace, the occasional anecdotes, the clear identity of their writing. The goal is not to imitate but to be inspired by their work.

None of the writers I’ve cited was born a great writer. They all had to learn the craft. Learn by doing. We might think it’s unfair when a small writer doesn’t get exposure for a great article they wrote. And in a sense, it is.

But on the other hand, the big writers have mastered their craft with hundreds if not thousands of articles. And the quality is still increasing. Slowly for sure, but it is increasing.

They have mastered the most important skill on Medium: consistency.

Consistency Is Everything

If you want any chance of succeeding on Medium, that’s the only word you need to remember.

Consistency.

Anybody can write a great article when they feel like it and give it time. Maybe they can even do that a few times.

But showing up every single day is the hard part. I’ve seen a lot of writers with amazing potential just stop posting on the platform because they didn’t get the results they were hoping for.

But they had only been writing for a few months. I know from experience that when you write consistently for a few months, it is very frustrating to have small results.

We have to get used to this. This is part of the process. Their writing was slowly improving. Even if they couldn’t see it.

I don’t even want to imagine all the great pieces of writing we’ve lost to lack of consistency.

Write About Things You Care About

The biggest lesson I learned from reading so many articles is the difference between a good piece and a bad one.

A good piece is written by someone who cares about this subject.

If you write about something you only remotely care about, it’s not going to be a great article. Are you wondering why the great writers mostly write about the same things over and over?

Because they care about it. They’ve tried to write articles about other subjects. But as soon as these subjects were not important to them, the quality of the article decreased dramatically.

That’s also the reason why so many popular writers have their specific style that you can identify by reading just a few sentences. They have shaped the subjects they are talking about and these subjects have shaped them.

When you think about it, it also makes sense that it’s easier to be consistent with your writing if you write about subjects important that you care about.

Final Thoughts

Medium is an amazing place.

There is a lot you can learn here. By reading the work from others but also by writing your own.

I advise you to keep a list of the articles you have read and enjoyed. Mine is here. Hidden gems are rare and you should cherish them.

Other platforms serve the function as Medium. But this one is a bit special. It makes interacting with writers and readers very easy. It connects people. Which was social media’s purpose before making us click ads.

Enjoy it while it’s there and not too dirty. We never know how long it might last.