After four years of being on Medium.
After 351 articles.
After 8,666 responses.
Maybe one in 10 articles breaks 100 reads.
About two in 10 articles do not break 10 reads.
My fourth-year traction is about 50% of my first-year traction.
Should I mention that I have probably read about 20,000 articles?
Despite all this effort, I’m a bottom writer!
Why am I a bottom writer?
Destiny of the Bottom Writer
Here are the links a couple of interesting articles from Medium.
https://writingcooperative.com/how-the-matthew-effect-explains-writing-success-a2382c32860a
https://dougshapiro.medium.com/power-laws-in-culture-27ab6461c693
My apologies: you might not be able to access these links unless you are a member of Medium.
These two articles have a different way to explain the same thing. Being on the bottom or the top has little to do with talent or value. There are natural social forces that makes it hard for those of us at the bottom to displace those of us who have found their way to the top. Most of us in creative and competitive endeavors are probably staying at the bottom for a long time — and will never come out.
Wishful Thinking
A few years ago, my niece went on a week-long basketball camp to better her skills for her high school basketball. She came back all aglow. Her instructors told her that she was in charge of her own basketball destiny. Hard work and persistence — and a basketball career was all hers.
Later that year, I took my son and his cousin to a college basketball game. My niece proudly pointed out that one of the players on the women’s team was her instructor at basketball camp. I could only think: “Yep, that young lady is living a basketball dream, playing for a small Canadian college. She’s sure going to big basketball places.”
Motivational speakers are doing more harm than good for the world. They tell us over and over again that hard work, smart work, persistence, and positive thinking will eventually lead to the life goal one is looking for. Which then leads to: “Anyone who is not meeting their life goal must be a loser.”
The motivational speakers fail to mention that the right connections can vault a career. I don’t have those connections to advance my writing in this way.
The motivational speakers fail to mention that being in the right place at the right time can vault a career. For every successful artist or athlete, there are at least five equivalently talented people who couldn’t find their right place and right time. After four years on Medium, I haven’t found my right place and right time. How long should I continue?
Summary of My Writing Approach
Hard Work: I’ve been working on my main writing topic since 1997. There’s been a few periods of unemployment where my writing became an all-day affair.
Smart Work: I try different approaches. When one social media forum fails to bring results after six to 12 months, I try another. Medium is my 10th forum. I have stayed here longer for several reasons.
Experimentation: One advantage with Medium is that it offered new ways to experiment with my promotion. For example, I announced my campaign to be the 47th President of the United States on Medium. It was worth a shot to try this satire to acquire readership for my more important topic. After about 15 such articles, I was no further ahead.
Positive Thinking: Yep, I have envisioned my book becoming a best seller and adoring fans taking my advice into local action. The late-night news shows would want to interview me. Give me high marks here.
Hooks: After 351 articles with different titles and graphics, I’ve done enough experiments in this regard. I see little connection to know how to hook my readers on a consistent basis. Sometimes a confrontational/controversial title will get more than my average traction, but not always. And I don’t want to rely on confrontation and controversy anyways.
Quality: After 31 years of serious writing, I can say that I have become a lot better at this craft. But I won’t call myself a great writer. There are writers on Medium who are better than me. If they are not making a reasonable income with their writing, then is it reasonable that I should? . . . . .
. . . . Actually, the answer is “yes.” I am writing about a topic no one else is writing about. Because I don’t have any competition for my out-of-the-box ideas, my writing needs only to be of good quality.
Quantity: Methinks my average of seven articles per month and six responses per day is sufficient quantity. One of my favorite writers on Medium publishes a handful of articles and comments rarely. He gets a lot more traction on Medium than I.
So what is wrong?
My Main Topic
Most of my Medium work talks about my alternative democracy. I invented this democracy after spending six years in a Canadian political party and seeing all the dysfunction inside that party. It’s no surprise to me that we are in the current mess we see ourselves in. I saw this back in 1992.
My main book has a logical progression. The first chapter compares a dysfunctional society to a functional society; we would prefer to live in the functional society. The second chapter presents the flaws of western democracies; we must fix these flaws. The third chapter explains my alternative democracy, which fixes all the flaws. The fourth and fifth chapters explain new tools we have to learn to make this new democracy work. And the sixth chapter explains how to move from HERE to THERE.
I have also written three novels that show how average Americans can build this new democracy. They are an easier and friendlier read that the quasi-academic approach of my first book:
Diary of a Future Politician
Confessions of a Future Politician
Circles of a Future Politician
And I have compiled 133 of my Medium articles together called “The TDG-Medium Papers.” This book has many short reads about my alternative democracy.
The Medium Audience
With Medium, I was able to find the audience I was looking for. Medium contributors are well educated and willing to learn new things. They are mostly left-wing, which means they have an inclusionary approach to politics. They recognize that something is “not right” with today’s democratic systems. They are reasonably civil. I could not have found a better internet audience. This demographic is another reason why I stayed here longer on Medium than I should have stayed.
Despite not getting the traction I would have liked, I — a bottom writer — estimate that I have interacted with about 4000 members of my audience about my alternative democracy in the past four years. I am thankful to Medium for allowing me to make these connections.
Four thousand is a big focus group. It has unitedly said, “Dave, we don’t want to investigate your alternative democracy.”
Medium contributors. . . do not want. . . to build . . . a new democracy!
While that is too bad for the world, it is what it is.
In essence, I have failed to deliver what my readers want to read.
My Future
Today I am in a period of unemployment. Until I find a job, my next best opportunity is to see if one of my Medium articles can be my “right place at the right time.” So since November, I have been publishing 15 TDG articles a month.
I’ve recently joined Mastodon, hoping to deflect some Mastodon users to my current and previous Medium articles.
If history is to repeat itself, I should not expect much. But as the old Kris Kristofferson song goes: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” my time is quite free these days.
When I find the “real-life” work I am looking for, my time on Medium will be curtailed — probably close to zero. The signs have been there for at least two years to put this TDG project on the shelf again, yet I have had my own delusion of wishful thinking. Like many starving artists, I need to grow up and face reality.
Conclusion
Five years from now, when you finally understand that the world really isn’t fixing itself, I hope you remember that a crazy guy from Canada had a crazy idea about a crazy new democracy.
Hopefully my Medium publication — Tiered Democratic Governance — will still be available for public viewing.
For 4000 of you, future history has been in your hands since you first met me.
Published on Medium 2023
So Politically Paralyzed We Are
Dave Volek's Pandemic Simulation
