Why I Don’t Advertise My Earnings

Beyond Comparison

You may have seen them. Endless stories on Medium about how much people are earning. Some claiming to be earning four figures within a month or so of joining the platform. The authors’ enthusiasm and desire to tell people is perhaps only natural, to boast of the secret of their success.

However I have reservations about the sharing of earnings figures in this way. Perhaps it is British reserve. We tend not to make a big deal about how much we earn so much over here.

We even make fun of people who do, like the “Loadsamoney” character that comedian Harry Enfield used to portray. He even made a hit record out of it:

Waving around a wad of money is seen as crass, at least in the UK. We also tend to favour modesty. So the practice of some on Medium to wave their earnings around does grate somewhat.

There is another reason I don’t share my earnings. My parents brought us up not to compare, as it causes so much unhappiness. While it is great for the tiny handful of people with unfeasibly large earnings on Medium, how does it make everyone else scraping by with a few dollars feel? I suspect not great in the case of many.

Comparing can provoke jealousy, envy and unhappiness, so I can see what my parents were getting at. This principle applies to every avenue of life, not just Medium. Constant comparison can make those less fortunate feel awful.

With the handful hitting the big time in a matter of a couple of months, I suspect there is an element of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls being “Fooled by Randomness”, the name of one of his books.

The essential message of Taleb’s book is that we tend to notice the winners, but there is an element of survivorship bias. We tend not to notice the tens of thousands who did very much the same but didn’t get the lucky breaks.

So to those waving a wad around like “Loadsamoney” I would urge restraint. Comparing and immodest behaviour can be a source of much unhappiness for others.