Thank you Luke Wiese for this inspiring piece of writing.
I want to let you know that it inspired me to choose to write more personal for a while. And right this morning I did some serious soul searching and wrote about my struggles in my relationship.
Let me say something about Algorithms, and I believe other writers can befit from this.
I usually write about Bitcoin and the revolution of money. The subject is close to my heart, I study it almost daily and know a lot about it. Since I am kind of a rebel, I like the idea to make an impact with my words, to fuel the revolution of money. I even started a publication The Spirit of Crypto, where technology meets spirituality.
This is what happened to me in the last weeks.
I read all those posts about showing up daily, about how to make it on Medium, how Medium works etc. So I wrote a piece almost everyday, sometimes even 3. I saw my income rice to $138,- for November. Great, I am happy. 3 pieces got curated, 1 about Crypto.
Until yesterday that didn’t matter to me, the value was indeed in showing up.
Writing is a brilliant mirror, through my dedication it showed me where I am in my life right now, what my purpose and potential is, and where I can improve.
It also taught me a lot about Medium. I did write to be curated, I love the writers ego boost, and can use the money. This morning I was about to write my next piece about Why I love Bitcoin, but I couldn’t. It was as if the source had run dry.
It did play a role that my last 10 pieces did not get curated. Some of them where my best ones till now, in my own opinion. I shared them on social media and that drew 80% of the viewers, one post got over 500 views and almost 200 reads and almost $10,- . Social media showed me the piece had value and was appreciated. Had it bee curated.. etc .. etc.. But it didn’t. And that actually did piss me of.
So I started to think about Medium’s algorithm. I had read a piece about how it works, and what you should do. Change your profile, read pieces that you want to be curated in, never change the TAG Medium gives you for a fresh piece.
Bow for the Algo Gods till you can’t even write sitting straight anymore.
Suddenly it dawned on me. I was playing chess with a computer. And i would never win. What if…
What if nobody reads my piece, it is scanned by a smart AI-driven algo that has been instructed to read, find tags, knows something about structure.
Think about it, I believe Medium has 30.000 writers and 25 curation editors?
So if 1/6th of the writers writes 1 piece a day, this leaves the curators with 5000 pieces , that’s 200 for each curator. Impossible to deliver quality, impossible to give respect to our writing.
Ok, maybe the algo’s make a pre-selection, makes sense.
Let’s zoom out. In Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, he explains that algo’s will run the show in not a very distant future. They will know more about you, your health, who is the right partner for you, etc, than yourself.
Algo’s take away the human aspect
And this is exactly my point. I want to be read by a human. Especially when I write vulnerable personal stuff. I can write for myself to improve, fine. I can write for the followers I already have, fine.
But I wont let algo’s decide my actions, theme of writing, and content.
That’s what I learned after writing with full enthusiasm for Medium for a year. I will never win a race against Medium’s algo’s. I can only win when I keep on writing for my followers, give then value and make an impact.
This will include personal insights and life lessons. In fact, the way to break the algo’s is by opening up, being authentic, ourselves. Because on the other side of the screen is a real human, with needs, uncertainties, fears and hopes.
From today I pledge to write with my heart again. To show up in who I am, with all my fuck ups.
I live in Ibiza, an island of Transformation. Many spiritual people live here. I consider myself one of them. I organize retreats and coach people. Most Facebook posts are filled with spiritual language, and sometimes I observe online battles in who is the smartest spiritual mind.
Now I realize what is missing
In their achievement to become Gods and Goddesses, they forget what it takes to be human. Somehow they hide behind their “Spirituality”. I did that for a while too, and now I realize why. Many writers on medium hide behind their ambition to be picked up by the algo’s, to be curated. I did this too, till this morning. I am ready to fully show up, algo’s or not.
In my quest to write for Medium, to be followed, noticed and even curated, I won't forget anymore what it means to be me. It was about that all the time from the beginning.
In the Netflix series Altered Carbon, the hero is taught how to leave the virtual world where he is tortured by a villein. The trick is to open up. He literally tears his heart out of his body and offers this to the woman he loves. Let us tear our words out of our hearts and write about what we really love, for who we really love.