A New Medium

Last Week/End I shared a fun-to-read behind the scenes look at Orange is the New Black, written by the real life Larry. It was published on Matter, a “collection” on the site Medium. Have you ever explored it?

I’ve since spent a ton of time on Medium, and am hooked. You might’ve already been there, done that — I’ve apparently been living under a rock. Launched nearly two years ago, Medium is another venture by Ev Williams and Biz Stone (you might know them as the guys who created Blogger…and then Twitter…no big deal). It’s a blogging platform, but also, for me, a reading platform. The layout of each article is easy to follow, and some (like this one) have really cool graphics interspersed as you scroll. I think Medium fills a huge void in the current blogosphere. It’s a place where people spend time writing and sharing and telling stories, many of which I’ve loved reading and learning from. Anyone can sign up for it and write their own pieces that are then available to anyone on the platform (I believe they become more highly visible based on the number of people engaging with the article — you’ll notice Medium’s ‘sidebar’ comment system the minute you begin reading a post). For now, I’m flying under the radar and am just enjoying reading a huge variety of articles. Many are grouped into collections, which you can search by topic. Here are a few of many favorites that I’ve come across and eagerly read. Prepare to spend your day finding a lot of stuff to peruse:

+ Miss American Dream: How Britney Spears went to Vegas and became a feminist role model. No, really.

+ Sorry, haters: That ‘How I Met Your Mother’ finale was perfect

+ The ‘Five Design Questions’ series
(I loved this recent response; here are where people publish all their answers)

+ The Crossroads of Should and Must

+ Content Used to be King. Now It’s the Joker.

+ Furbaby Fever

+ 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science

+ Creative People Say No
(I starred this quote: “Creators do not ask how much time something takes but how much creation it costs.”)

Are you signed up on Medium? Any good posts you’ve come across recently?