What We’re Reading: Medium Day is Saturday, August 12. Join us
Hi Medium readers,
We’ve been saying this a lot, but it bears repeating: Now is the time for human stories.
For thousands of years, stories have been how we learn from and pass our wisdom to other people. We aren’t computers and we aren’t moved to true understanding by a crib sheet of facts, by summaries, or by hot takes. Writing is how many of us process and share our own understanding of the world.
This Saturday, August 12th, we’re celebrating the human storytellers of Medium as we also celebrate our 11th birthday.
Medium Day is a free, live online conference of our community where you’ll learn directly from people who share their lives on Medium. With over 250 talks throughout the day, you’ll see a wide variety of perspectives from various publications, editors, authors, and our staff, and be able to ask questions. I’ll be there, too, with a keynote (at noon ET) about where Medium is now, what we’re excited about, and where we’re headed.
I’d love for you to join me. To register and see a full schedule of events, go to: https://hopin.com/events/medium-day-2023/registration
See you at Medium Day.
Tony Stubblebine
CEO @ Medium
Your Weekend Reads
“Please Don’t Harass the Sea Otters” by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
While getting up close and personal with a sea otter may seem adorable and harmless, it can cause harm and sets a bad example when it comes to how we interact with wildlife. Sharing photos and videos of close wildlife encounters causes further harm by encouraging others to seek out those interactions as well.
Getting too close can interfere with the animal’s ability to forage and get essential rest, ultimately affecting the animal’s overall health.
“Oh Dear, Threads Seems to be Unravelling Fast” by Enrique Dans, Professor of Innovation at IE Business School, in Enrique Dans
Meanwhile, users have been steadily leaving Meta’s Threads: first half of them, and at this point, more than 100 million, leaving around 12.6 million, turning its supposed success into another of the company’s many failures: the vast majority of those who opened an account on Threads have already stopped using it.
“FUBAR, SUSFU, and 17 Other Glorious Military Screw-Up Acronyms” by Jack Shepherd, crossword puzzle expert and former Editorial Director at Buzzfeed, in Cellar Door
There’s a rich history of slang terminology developed during military conflicts and becoming part of civilian lingo, but, as Dickson points out, World War II was “the first war to see the large-scale introduction of initialisms and acronyms.” In fact, the word “acronym” doesn’t get used at all in English until the 1940s, when everybody suddenly decided they liked making words out of initials.
“Preparing Hip Hop for a Data-Abundant Future” by Brandeis Marshall, data scientist and author of Data Conscience
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of hip hop music. It’s a cultural, artistic and creative blend of disco, funk, jazz, reggae and rhythm and blues. Over the past 5 decades, hip hop has gone from street corners and parks in Queens, New York to global reach and influence. Digital technologies helped to further its adoption and acceptance worldwide. Hip hop music and its subsequent culture has evolved over the years with creatives finding new ways to stay true to its Queens roots while integrating tech advances.
“Here’s One Small Pleasure for Every Day of the Week” by Sophie Lucido Johnson, New Yorker cartoonist and author of Many Love
I’m here to tell you about two lessons I’ve learned by painstakingly prioritizing trips to the mountain, which are: (1) it’s hard to get things done when you’re using the word “maybe”; and (2) the thing that Dale Cooper said on “Twin Peaks” about how you should “every day, once a day, give yourself a present” is good advice. But it helps to regulate it.
“Raising Prices For Your Product: Should You Do It? If So, How?” by Dan Layfield, Founder of Subscription Index and former Product Manager at Uber, in Entrepreneur’s Handbook
There is no definitive measure that will tell you if you are charging too much or not enough. You have to research your competitive set and test this change for yourself.
The thing that you should be trying to do is to charge the maximum price for your users, your strategy, and the growth rates that you want.
“A Former Mattel Employee’s Take on the Barbie Movie” by Michelle Murphy, Managing Director at Use All Five, in Publishous
As exhausting and frustrating as it could sometimes be, I saw firsthand how Barbie truly inspired and empowered girls worldwide. It was wild to launch a web game and see millions of girls worldwide interacting on day 1. Every day at work felt like I was really making a difference in the lives of future generations.
Which sessions are you looking forward to at Medium Day? Let us know in the responses and see you on August 12!
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“What We’re Reading” is a weekly roundup of insightful stories and perspectives from across Medium. Browse previous editions here.
