Répondez S’il Vous Plaît
Our responses are our best contributions
We each have our own ambitions, our own aims and purposes and dreams, and our motivations on this site are of course no exception. As readers, we may aim for entertainment and pleasure, and we may aim for learning and advancement. As writers, we may pursue celebrity and renown, and we may hope to share parts of ourselves and find connections with others.
We may be tempted to think the chief measure of our contributions and value here on Medium is a measure of our original stories, the conversations we start and the attention our own words attract. But we would be wrong, importantly wrong. Responses — honest, supportive, insightful, illuminating, meaningful responses — should be what we aspire to and esteem above all else.
Original stories (this one included, I know) say, Look at me. Good responses say, I hear you. They can acknowledge another writer’s effort directly, and in a personal way. They are an opportunity to give a writer feedback they can use to improve, and to help other readers of the current story by asking the writer to expand or clarify. They invite other readers to engage and join in a conversation that has already started. They offer encouragement beyond a nonspecific, easily bestowed green heart.
Good responses are hard. We have to understand another writer’s point of view, incorporate their notions into our own, and express our own ideas in relation to theirs. That makes them all the more valuable, to the writer and to other readers, and it makes them good exercise for us as writers ourselves, too.
Responding to each other is how we raise all our boats.
If you like this post, please click on Write a response … in someone else’s story or response (and one that you weren’t going to already). Ideally, someone you can see making an effort, putting something honest and new out into the world. Do it once today, do it once tomorrow, maybe do it twice on Wednesday. (Also, make sure to read this post on a Monday. Otherwise I’ll look dumb.)
