What I Learned from Publishing 150 Articles on Medium
You will eventually get there — keep calm, move on, keep writing
Two months ago, I shared my reflections with you on having published 100 articles on Medium. I lamented on not attracting enough traction, views, followers, and money on this platform. However, I also celebrated my journey of learning and asset creation, underlining how this is a marathon and I am here for the long haul. I am sharing that article again below as a reminder:
Today, I want to reflect on how my Medium journey is currently unfolding and continuing to evolve. I will take stock on what happened since July 2020 and what I learned from adding a portfolio of 50 articles to my Medium shelves.
Last time, I had 399 followers. As of now, I have 525 followers (126 people increase).
Previously, I have had 4 articles curated. I have now added 3 more articles to this portfolio. For the purposes of clarity and learning, I list them below:
1.“What You Need to Know About GPT-3 And Why It Matters” (An idiot’s guide to GPT-3 and what is to come) article was curated in Artificial Intelligence and Future. As of today, it has a total of 711 views and it has made $15.66. I have written this article after feeling obsessed with GPT-3. I was so curious that I have read more than 50 articles on GPT-3 and spent days to make sense of this cutting-edge technology. You can find this article here:
2. “Here are My Top 3 Books on Artificial Intelligence” article has recently been curated in Artificial Intelligence and Books. It has 319 views and it has made $3.75. I intended this post to be a really short one, but it has grown organically through my curiosity and became this gigantic article.
3. “To Become a Renaissance Person, Conduct 10,000 Experiments in Your Field” (Business Landscape is Evolving Rapidly — So Should You) article has just been curated today in Creativity. It has been published today, so it has 56 views for now. It is a short article, but it includes exciting stories on innovation from Netflix to Dyson, from Joe Rogan to Elon Musk:
Here are the lessons that I learned as a result of writing and shipping 150 articles
1. Surprise yourself by challenging yourself to write in domains that you are curious about, but do not feel qualified.
When I look back at these curated stories, I am deeply surprised. I did not think that I would be writing articles covering futuristic visions, technologies, and innovations. I did not think I had the confidence or expertise to write on these topics. I surprised myself and my brain through the power of curiosity.
2. Become a relentless learning machine and develop your own mental models to strengthen your perspectives.
When you are curious, you become a relentless learning machine. You get excited and want to explore the topics in more depth. As you read more, you get momentum and want to learn even more.
Your super-power then becomes sharing your excitement with your readers. You can best teach through sharing your curiosity adventures and new discoveries that excite you. People do not read you because you are smart and you know it all. They read you because you are curious and passionate about the topics that you want to explore.
Readers want your story, your independent thinking, your unique perspective, your packaging, and your take on the issues. Give them what they want.
3. Rewire your brain to reinvent yourself. Develop a better version of yourself every day.
Your brain has amazing capabilities of limitless learning and neuroplasticity. You can change your definition of yourself. You can rewire your brain to learn fast and achieve fascinating things.
That is what I have experienced over the next few weeks. I have re-invented myself as a futurist technology writer despite my lack of technical expertise. This is the power of neuroplasticity — you can re-wire your brain and tremendously amplify your learning skills. It all starts with changing your inner conversations with yourself.
4. Do not expect quick returns, virality, or victories on Medium. Your growth as a writer takes time. Provide yourself a lot of opportunities for failure and experimentation.
When you are at the start of your journey, everything is hard. You need to work very hard for a long time before expecting any return or success. Most people never finish the long term marathon. You will need to hang in there, be persistent, and continue loving what you do.
You will get better eventually, but this is a numbers game. In order to be original, write and produce a lot. You need to give yourself a lot of opportunities and chances to thrive. Some of this is purely probability theory: You are increasing your chances with each post.
If you really want to get lucky in the long term, you need to provide yourself more opportunities for failure. This is a marathon — play the long game. I remember feeling like an absolute failure during my first few months on Medium. I have realized how little I know about writing online. I need to master a steep learning curve and hang in there. I need to pass through a long valley of disappointment to make progress.
5. Do not compare yourself to other writers on Medium. Your journey is yours alone. Keep improving and compound yourself.
Do not compare yourself to others. This is your journey and yours alone. You are only competing with yourself, not others.
Will you get better every day? Will you keep creating better writing every day?
As James Altucher suggests, if you improve at anything 1% per day, by the end of the year you’ll become better at it by 37 times (1.⁰¹³⁶⁵ = 37.7834343329). This illustrates the power of compounding. This also illustrates the power of non-linear growth.
Do not be discouraged by initial failures — you will keep failing during the early months on Medium. Just hang in there and keep going.
When you write and publish 100 or 150 posts, you will become a different person. You will feel that you are learning, progressing, and innovating. You will also collect fascinating ideas, stories, experiences, friendships, and connections. And that is what matters. This is your hero’s journey. Keep calm and move on.
6. Write every day — even if you write for 15 minutes.
Change starts in very small increments. You can build positive habits by starting small and giving yourself a lot of opportunities for small experimentation every day.
Show up each day even if you do not feel like writing. I do this by setting myself a very tiny writing goal every day. I make my goal so small that it is very easy to accomplish. For example, I will write for a minimum of 15 minutes every day. Or, I will write a minimum of 100 words every day. Starting small will give you the confidence and the momentum you need. Writing is difficult and you need to approach your writing routine with a sense of patience and self-compassion. You need to develop your own system of creativity and productivity that works for you.
Do not wait for inspiration — it is not coming. You first do the work, and inspiration comes in later anyway. If this means you need to eat the frog first thing in the morning, do it by all means.
Writer’s block is not real. It does not exist. If you run out of ideas, you can just write down your stream of consciousness.
Develop a consistent writing routine every morning. Do not break the chain and make sure you write every day. If you write every day, your writing will improve tremendously after a couple of months — and you will be surprised how much you have grown as a writer.
Neil Gaiman says: “Assume that you have one million words inside of you and they are all rubbish. Get them all out.”
7. Celebrate your successes, even if they are very small.
Your Medium journey improves incrementally — you need to celebrate small achievements and build on them. One of my small victories this month was writing a timely journalistic article titled “Elon Musk’s Neuralink Demo Today is Yet Another Historical Event”.
I published the article on the day of the Neuralink demo and reflected on the long term significance of this event. The article has 494 views and it has made $11.06. More importantly, I learned a lot on a topic that I cared about. I discovered that writing is a super-power for accelerated learning on any topic. If you want to amplify your learning on any topic, you should write articles on that topic. This will ensure that you are following your curiosity, developing your own perspective, and maximizing your own learning through your writing.
8. Develop your storytelling skills and your own voice.
Discover why you are writing and what it is that you want to share about your life and your experiences. What are the meaningful stories of your life? Make your stories interesting and engaging. Make sure you are adding value to your readers.
Understand what makes your content really interesting and potentially viral. Where are your purple cows?
The best of your content will come from your own experiences. For example, I have recently reflected on my childhood experiences of helping my father in shopkeeping. Here is what I said: Writing on Medium is like shopkeeping, your readers are your customers, and your stories are your inventory. And the good news is that your inventory never diminishes. Each article you write is an asset that keeps on giving.
Another article I have written was about my creativity workshop experience with Julia Cameron. I have shared an exciting exercise from this weekend artist’s retreat. It worked well because I shared my excitement about an experience that I found very inspiring:
Where are your experiences only you can narrate?
Where are your blue oceans only you can navigate?
Develop your own voice and skillset as a storyteller, a writer, and a content creator.
I hope you enjoyed my reflections and perspectives. I will update you when I reach my 200th article, and then my 250th article. You will then witness my writing adventures and my progress unfolding in real-time.
Until that time, adios amigos!
Sincerely;
Fahri