In the light of day, I have an answer to the first question. I think there are elements of truth to the accusations levelled against me. I’m young, white and privileged. I write from a place of privilege. I write articles that I know my audience will appreciate, and I don’t challenge them as often as I should. Some of what I say comes across as bullshit.

That’s tough to express, in my own words. As, indeed, it was tough to accept in someone else’s. But I think it’s a positive moment for me. It’s positive because it affords me an opportunity to become a better writer. And after all, I have so much room to improve.

I’ve been writing online for 10 years now. That’s nothing, in the big scheme of things. As long as nobody unplugs the entire internet, I’ll have another 60 or 70 years of writing — fingers crossed. If I didn’t improve in that time period, I couldn’t call myself a writer.

The second question was a little harder. I knew I could leave it alone, as I intended to when I hit the hay last night, as I told Henry I would. I could just let the piece slide, and let the people who hate my work hate it in peace.

I knew I could write an angry response, pulling out every snide comeback I learned through years of playing shitty punk rock shows and dealing with hecklers.

But I also knew that neither of those options was going to be hard for me. I knew that the hard thing would lie in creating a constructive, thoughtful, healthy response. So here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to take my criticisms as a challenge. A challenge to be a better writer.

After all, that’s what they want, isn’t it? They don’t want to tear me down, and stop me from publishing. They want me to become better at what I do, better at expressing my thoughts, better at editing and auditing those thoughts.

I’m going to examine the topics I write about.

I’m going to address any elements of click bait in the work I do. In the simplest terms, I won’t publish one single post on Medium with a number in the title. I won’t use “How To” either.

I’m going to question whether my privilege should prevent me from offering a piece of advice or publishing a certain post — and where necessary, openly acknowledge that privilege.

I’m going to continue moving away from topics that could be construed as life-hacking. I’ll be writing about entrepreneurship, and startup commentary, and marketing advice, and creativity, and feminism. Those are the topics I love. But I’ll keep the life-hack elements out, as much as I can.

I’m going to invite anyone who has a problem with my work to email me, and begin an open discussion about it, with the guarantee that I will respond, I will be reasonable, and I will be civil.

Additionally, I will create a new publication, dedicated to boosting and sharing the work of great writers here on Medium, covering difficult and challenging topics. I will use that publication to help great writers rise through the noise and become strong signals in their own right.

But I want to issue a challenge of my own. We all want to see Medium become a great platform. A place where great work is published, and great thoughts are shared. If you hate my work, take it on board and create new work.

Make better work. By all means, criticise and call me out, but if you’re angry — use your anger to publish more writing, create incredible articles. Out think and out last me.

Don’t use it to gain clicks by baiting me, tagging me, and using my audience to guarantee one for you.

I want to see what you come up with. I genuinely do. And I hope you want to see my own work improve.

Because that’s what this platform is all about.