Those who write have a voice; but if you publish and no one reads, do your thoughts matter?

How many Medium posts you have in Draft, waiting to be finished and published? I count over 30. Which made me ponder:

If I write and never publish, did I really express my thoughts?

If I publish and no one reads, do my thoughts matter?

Thanks to Ev Williams and team, Medium is more than a publishing tool. It’s a platform and network. Everyday, people write and publish. Everyday, great content is discovered through the network. Some posts garner millions of readers and recommends, while other posts go unread.

Unfortunately, networks sometimes promote an unhealthy culture of validation. People associate the number of likes and recommends with how much they matter. The truth is, it only matters to you.

As the Medium network grows, we should not allow the validation culture to become a part of what we represent. We should preserve writing as a special form of expression. We should encourage everyone to write, to express their thoughts, and to remember:

Your thoughts matter, even if no one reads it.