Let’s do this little thought experiment. I often get comments like “I don’t write here for the money”. Of course, most of these comments come from my stories about money.

I don’t have the slightest problem with those comments, I just ask myself: Are you really?

If Medium stopped paying writers, who would still write here?

As I continued to think about this question, I realized that the answer is more complicated than I expected. Because I think I would still be writing here.

Why?

I’ve done it before. I had numerous blogs over 13+ years. I’ve never made any (significant) money. With some, I didn’t even try.

That was then though. Now, with a handful of kids, it might be different. I’d probably still be writing somewhere. For free or with the prospect of earning in the future.