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Should we keep writing if they stop paying?
That’s not a rhetorical question…
Well, Medium’s gone and done it yet again, that is, tanked the flow of money that had, in recent years, given many an aspiring writer a reason to believe they might (improbable as it sounds) have a future in this industry. There’s very little incentive to be writing on Medium at the moment, and much of it is for show — there’s some who’ll be posting just to show they’re not in it for the money (while also kinda hoping that when the money/boost situation gets fixed, their sacrifice will be remembered in the great big ledger ascribing brownie points).
And you can maintain that position and quite well, but you need to either distract yourself completely from this current madness going on with the Partner Program, or be really good at faking it.
Tell you a secret? I’m not.
And while I’m a little better at distracting myself from some things, I can’t with this. It’s ludicrous to even suggest that money isn’t important to an artist and it’s only possible because of the inferior position that artists have occupied historically.
No one would bat an eye if a doctor, lawyer, baker, or carpenter had their salary docked and didn’t show up for work. You wouldn’t go around your plumber’s house shaming him for not doing his job…
