In response to Gutbloom
“ At a garage sale we know that the items put out on the tables have almost no value to the owners, but they are not going to let them go for free.” — Gutbloom
If you think the hard work some Medium writers put into their locked posts has no value to them then you are either profoundly drunk or you live in some alternate universe. To equate the new Medium Partnership Program with a yard sale is the epitome of cynicism.
Yes, I know that I have been a rather vocal critic of just about everything that Medium has done in the last 2+ years that I’ve been here, but not anymore!
Thinking about the new Partnership Program for the last few weeks has significantly turned my head. I’ve had some harsh words for Ev Williams in the past but I am now starting to think that he is almost a genius. I am beginning to think that this Partnership Program will not only change Medium but will actually alter the internet zeitgeist. It goes beyond anything that has been tried and has the potential of being significantly transformative.
Why? We can all come up with a pro and con list in regard to the program, but I am slowly becoming convinced that this new program will significantly increase the quality of writing on Medium. This, I feel, is its greatest benefit.
Having finally been accepted into the program (though not having locked anything yet), I can’t stop thinking about how I’ve got to step up my writing. And I think a lot of writers are thinking the same thing. The same-old, same-old isn’t going to cut it. If this program is going to work for us — and for Medium — we’ve got to be at the very top of our game and publish the very best stuff we can.
When I have a yard sale I don’t put the family jewels out on the tables. I don’t sell the things I cherish the most. I put out the crap I want to get rid of and I’m happy with the coins I receive.
But the Partnership Program is the opposite of a yard sale thrown maybe once each summer. It is more like an art auction.
Instead of getting rid of something that has no value to you (as with a yard sale), you put everything you’ve got into something to offer. Auction bidders aren’t there to buy crap. They will only bid on something that truly moves them and inspires them to open their wallet. They want to go home with the satisfaction of being moved at the core of their being. They want their minds blown, their hearts touched, their perspectives and perceptions profoundly tweaked, and they want everyone else to experience the same.
Gutbloom , while you see the Partnership program as a yard sale of junk, I see it as quickly morphing into an art auction. I see it as an eventual separation of the wheat from the chaff, the valuable from the junk, the gemstones from the pebbles, the transformative from the static, the moving from the stationary, and the art from the graffiti. I see the Partnership Program as taking everything up a notch or two or twelve. I see it as spurring every one of us Medium writers to open up and give it our all. I see it as pushing the envelope, not only for the writers, but also for the readers as well as humankind at large.
Seriously, that’s how jazzed I am about it.
And I am becoming ever more convinced that this system will indeed work, if given the chance. But first it must survive the prevailing and automatic resisting cynicism. I am beginning to think that it is an idea that can survive that and become a bellwether of change.
“Clapping as tipping.” — Gutbloom
Clapping is not tipping and that is the problem of perspective you illustrate. Clapping is paying for the meal. Clapping is not rewarding a waitress who brings you a meal. It is rewarding the chef who prepared the meal. This is the fundamental difference your intense cynicism prevents you from seeing. Yes, the waitress (Medium) gets a cut but it is not she who you are reacting to. It is the chef back in the kitchen. It is the chef who brings you sustenance and it is the chef who you can now reward.
This may help reward you with delicious meals. It may even help with digestion. It may even help with nutrition. What it does is it brings you into a more intimate relationship with the food you eat. The wall between the dining room and the kitchen has been torn down. Rejoice!
