Why You Should Not Read Too Much Medium-Meta Articles

Guys, that’s not good for your health.

Photo by Jess Morgan on Unsplash

I started to learn to touch-type (typing without looking at the keyboard) a week ago.

Currently, I can touch-type with an average speed of 30 words per minute. Not bad progress, in my opinion.

My progress report. Screenshot from keybr.com

So, why am I sharing this all in the first place? And that too in an article on reading too much meta-platform stuff, here, Medium-meta articles.

This has an interesting co-relation. Let me tell you a story.

How it all started

I had been planning to learn touch-typing for a long time. I remember watching Ali Abdaal’s video on typing 156 words per minute where he tells how typing faster can boost your productivity.

Plus, it also looks cool to type without looking at the keyboard, right? This was a bigger motivation for me to be honest. Maybe a teenage thing—to look cool haha.

But I never started.

Whenever inspiration hit me, I would watch a couple of videos and, well… the end.

But that’s the case no more this time

Fed up with this habit of mine, this time I firmly decided that instead of watching a lot of YouTube videos, I will actually practise.

So, I found a free website on which I could practise and got started.

In the beginning, I started with just 5 alphabets. That was easy. But as the number of keys started increasing, this thing started to get a lot intimidating.

I wanted to quit like every other ten seconds. But I continued.

And now, I am fairly confident that I’ll not quit at least because I am starting to have fun in the process.

Does this sound similar?

Yes, it does. Doesn’t it?

Isn’t this the case we all have when we start writing on Medium? Just reading a lot of Medium-meta articles… and doing nothing.

This used to be the case with me and I’m pretty sure the same could be the case with you too.

We read more about how to do this and that than actually writing, actually putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard.

Why? Because it gives us an instant dopamine hit and our brain interprets it as some sort of success, and ultimately we are left with a sense of accomplishment.

But unfortunately, it’s short-lived.

Soon enough, we discover that we did nothing worthy. It was merely an escape mechanism. And we start feeling discouraged.

But you will only get the results when you actually do the stuff and not fool your brain that you’re doing the work.

Does that mean you should never read articles on Medium?

Definitely not.

I have read some really good information-dense articles about the platform and how things work here.

And you can leverage that knowledge to get results faster. But you have to know that in order to use it, right?

So, yes, articles on or about Medium are helpful. No doubt about that.

The problem comes when you start to consume them in over-dose.

It’s like eating and eating and eating and doing no exercise. That’s an unhealthy practice overall. That analogy works well here.

What should you do?

I think you’re smart enough to guess what I am about to say, or type.

I have touch-typed this article for most of the part. I didn’t stop after watching a ton of tutorials and all this time.

And it is only this time that I am getting results. All the other times, I failed, without even trying.

And the same happens with us every single time when we just read a lot of how-to guides on Medium and do nothing after that. We fail without even trying.

So, write.

And don’t worry about getting views initially. Everything eventually comes when you put in the effort from your side.

Because the last line came from a 16-year-old, so many times he himself forgets to keep that in mind, but is preaching. Hell, hypocrisy! Haha yes, a bit!

In this article, I discuss how you can easily get started with writing an article. Just replace the blank page with 3–5 bullets on what your story is about.

Open only if you promise me that you’ll actually write after reading that.

Here’s Why You Should Never Start With a Blank Page on Medium

I hope you found this article interesting and worth your time. Until next time.

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