Keyser Soze and his Latest Recommends

He was right before our eyes the whole time. Who else starts three kick ass, cut throat tech companies, makes a billion dollars, exercises immense control over an emerging media platform, and is still somehow known as a gooberish, good natured techno-nerd.

If there is one man I’d consider wrapping in a blanket, cradling in my arms and rocking to sleep with James Taylor playing in the background — it is Ev Williams. But that would be a very lethal mistake on my part.

Let’s look at Ev’s three latest recommends to get a sense of how this I’m-just-an-introvert-who-likes-stories kind of guy operates.

RECOMMEND #1

What is this even about? Who is this man and are you paying him royalties?

Ostensibly this Recommend is intended to expand the content on Medium beyond “Ten Ways to Scratch Your Ass on Thursday Morning.”

But Ev/Soze know this stuff is gold catnip for the NPR crowd. This story caught their attention. YES PLEASE, said every grad student in Northern California. Soon the business models of The Atlantic and the New Yorker will collapse — benefiting one man.

RECOMMEND #2

Dude, even though we are talking about Keyser Soze, he is pretending to be an Ev Williams kind of guy. So there has to be an incredibly boring article about UI with a complicated looking diagram and about 12,000 Recommends. Starting with Ev’s. This is his beard. Soze would rather read about assassination techniques and the art of mind control. But he already knows about those things, so its not a big deal.

RECOMMEND #3

Ev/Soze knows this stuff is going to bomb. Guess what, no more paid authors. That leaves a bunch of poor saps like you and me, ready to sell our souls and stay up late crafting the perfect story FOR FREE. Soze will occasionally throw us a bone to keep us motivated. But he knows we are hooked. In fact, he knows us better than we know ourselves. And he is creating a kick ass platform in the process- our shit is that good.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that…he’s gone.