It’s Time to Say Hello
The butterfly effect, or the story of how we are all interconnected in one way or another
Hello, my wonderful reader with a big heart. Well, I decided to come back to Medium, at least for a while, and let me explain why. Sometimes there is a series of events in life that have a definite impact on us.
Let’s fly!
Medium is the Best
Believe it or not, Medium is truly the best platform for writers and readers around the world.
First of all, I should confess that I take great pleasure in rereading my articles several times, loving everything from the pictures to the naive sincerity in the text. However, it turns out I don’t enjoy reading my work on all platforms.
For instance, I started writing on the largest Russian-language platform, Zen. But when I opened one of my stories there, I just couldn’t finish it. The reason? The ubiquitous ads, flickering like garlands on a New Year’s tree.
Despite this, I wrote a couple of articles for Zen, but I came to the realization that if I can’t even enjoy my own work, who else will? No, reading on platforms where ads dance like strobe lights is a special kind of torture.
In addition, in order to promote my stories on Dzen, I need to be an active user of vkontakte.ru (Russian Facebook) or to be just a user to buy advertising for my posts.
However, I’m not even registered there and don’t want to. Since the founder, Mr. Durov (Telegram founder as well), left there, I have lost confidence in this social network and deleted my account some years ago.
Anyway, I thought about writing on Medium sometimes because it’s a good exercise for not forgetting English. Ha-ha-ha!
Then I stumbled upon the article by Tony Stubblebine (don’t want to bother him with green “calling”):
I read his article and almost completely agree, except for one point regarding AI.
I am, let’s say, actively using AI to paraphrase my thoughts, especially now that I don’t use Grammarly, and I don’t see it as a problem. In general, I think that if one answers Yes to the following questions, then one can use AI without hesitation (just my opinion):
- Do you write about your personal experience or your own thoughts?
- Do you really think those thoughts, experiences, could be useful, or interesting to the reader?
- If you were an outside reader, would you read your article with interest, or with benefits?
I realize that sometimes we just want to talk it out, so this is just a guideline, not a law that, when broken, a person would be ashamed of.
For example, I started making some music for fun, but I think that maybe someone would enjoy this private piece of my life, maybe not. I don’t know. So, I am not sure that I would say Yes to the third question, yet, I want to talk this out.
When I was much younger, I used to write and record my own songs, yeah, my songs, believe it or not.
Just a beaten-up guitar and a microphone that made me sound like I was singing through a tin can. Somehow, a couple of those recordings have survived to this day, for better or worse.
If you’re feeling brave, I can share a little snippet, but fair warning — the audio quality is, let’s just say, “vintage.”
As you might hear, I kept a few fragments for memory (smiling now).
I had a whole collection, like 20 tracks or so, that I recorded on the most primitive setup imaginable: a Pentium II and a simple microphone.
These days, it’s so much easier to indulge my musical whims because we don’t need a studio with expensive equipment or a concert venue with musicians.
So, I have been killing time waiting for my wife to get back from Thailand, and I figured, why not try to relive the glory days?
Glory days? Hah! Okay-okay, I just enjoy creating and experimenting. But hey, a musician’s gotta do what a musician’s gotta do, right? Ha-ha-ha!
Since I’m a pretty melancholy introvert, I didn’t even have Instagram until recently, and I still don’t use Tick-Tock. In this regard, Medium is a safe haven for me, where I can be alone on the one hand, and, share something with people who support me on the other hand. Even though they didn’t know it themselves.
I want to thank Susan Fourtané for her support. If she hadn’t said that, I probably wouldn’t have gotten back on Medium. I am particularly pleased to write about this because, as a Buddhist, I realize that every word has a tremendous impact not only on the individual, but on the world.
It’s not just a butterfly effect, it’s more than that.
Anyway, let’s do some mathematics instead of drawing conclusions:
Not the most enjoyable platform for writers and readers Dzen+Tony’s article+ Susan’s support=renewed interest in reading and writing on Medium.
Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. 🙏🏻💜
As for me, I have a lot of stories to tell. Stay tuned.
