Finding What’s Rare on Medium Takes Time

Encouraging things I’ve learned in sixteen months on the platform

The somewhat rare “lesser purple fringed orchid.” I’ve seen one of these wild plants in my lifetime. Maybe there were others that went overlooked. Ray Wirth photo.

What’s rare on Medium is having a reader fully onboard, doors shut, seatbelt fastened, there for the duration, reading your article closely, open to your message, and savoring every word.

What’s also rare on Medium is doing that for another writer.

Not that I’m saying this critically. It’s not our fault. First off, reading text in a digital format impairs comprehension and encourages superficial, fast-paced reading. Second, Medium is designed for writers and most people are here to write, so for most of us, reading is secondary.

Full disclosure, in my own reading on Medium, I’m a hyena. I read like I’m being chased by something, maybe my own ambition. In the back of my mind is the sense I should be writing, or — if I’m impressed by the article — that I should have written it. There’s an urgency. The urgency makes me ravenous — and ruthless. I’m racing. I’m scanning. I’m taking hold of; I’m rejecting. I’m picking through. All the time, I’m asking, “Is this of use? What about this? This?”

But there are moments a word or sentence takes hold of me — the hyena finds an uncommonly delectable morsel — and I am drawn in. I slow down and savor and become that reader everyone…