I know what you mean. It’s hard to find the gold in among the dirt. And I think it’s going to get harder.

Ten years ago, I used to write on Thought Catalog. It still exists, but it’s gone from being a place for diverse thinking to a bunch of lovelorn listicles by cheesy millennials and Gen Zs (and I say that in the full knowledge that I’m a millennial too).

People want what they want, and mostly what they want is…bad. That’s why 50 Shades of Shit can sell a bajillion copies, and hardly anyone’s even heard of Joseph Roth.

As a business model, Medium has a problem. Writers like us are a net loss financially. They need lots of readers who aren’t going to write — or who may write, but will never make more than the $5 per month admission fee. They can talk about quality all they want, but no one gets to dictate what the market wants. If that’s crappy rehashes of the same thing over and over again, that’s what they are going to have to publish.

For all its flaws, I think curation was supposed to address that issue. I think in its way, Medium is trying to maintain some quality. But they also need mass appeal.

I miss your writing on here, so I hope you find a way to get back into it. But I can see the day coming when all the good writers leave this platform. It seems to be part of the pattern for sites like this.