Why You Shouldn’t Care How Much Anyone Makes on Medium

“In the short run, a market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine”

Over the past three days, I saw three different pieces on Medium that went like, “The Complete Breakdown Of My $1,500 Piece,” or, “How I Made $5,000 In One Month On Medium, Explained,” and so on.

While I understand why some people write them and why some readers might want to read them, I think that those people are missing the point.

Medium was created to fight with clickbait and low-quality content. Its mission is to prioritize content quality over quantity and to feed minds (instead of creating mindless feeds).

I bet if you asked Ev Williams Peter Thiel’s contrarian question (“What truth do few people agree with you on?”) just before he launched Medium, his answer would have been something along the lines of, “The internet was created for education and connection, not selling your attention.” Whatever it might have been, like for most entrepreneurs, his company (Medium) is the ultimate answer.

When people prioritize making money writing and writing about money on Medium, they are missing the big idea.

Big ideas aside, writers who obsess over money are doing themselves a disservice — for three different reasons.

First — They are not real writers, but copywriters.

Writing is art; copywriting is a job. The difference is subtle, and it’s not in the money but the creator’s ultimate goals. It’s OK to get paid, but when you write solely for the payment, your writing ceases to be art and becomes a transaction.

Second —It’s impossible to write anything meaningful when you’re always wondering in the back of your head whether you’ll be curated, whether you’ll get enough claps, fans, or what have you.

Professional writers internalize their goals — they focus on producing a meaningful piece each day and let the rest take care of itself. Even if most people think their content sucks, they don’t care. They’ve done everything they could and are proud of their effort.

Finally — If you’re obsessed about money, you’ll ultimately lose.

Benjamin Graham famously said, “In the short run, a market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” If you get 5K claps on Medium, it doesn’t mean that your writing is brilliant. It just says that you’ve hit a nerve. The best way to get people to vote for you is to chase the hype: writing about things that are on people’s minds, whether it’s the coronavirus, Donald Trump, or making it on Medium.

People will always want to read (and pay) for three things: losing weight, getting paid, and getting laid. You can try to write about things that get you noticed, and you may even experience some form of success. But you’ll never be able to beat Buzzfeed.

The question is, what game are you playing? Are you chasing the number, or are you writing for posterity? Are you trying to make a quick buck, or are you trying to make a difference?

Do you want to be noticed, or do you want to matter?

When the dust settles, the writers who prioritized the right things will be the ones left standing. Those who gave more than they took will be the ones trusted, read, and followed.

In the long run, the market — whether it’s Medium or the internet in general — will weigh the impact you’ve made.