A formula. I don't think so.

People read/like/admire what they are familiar with. That matches up with what's in their Instagram or Twitter feed or what some influencer said was cool or what a YouTube video said was the best.

I've read articles that garnered 50K-100K views and contained content and subject matter that had been done and redone 50 times, but someone just put Elon Musk in the title and it went viral.

Call it sour grapes, call it envy call it perpendicular logic - it doesn't matter. It's observationally true. Most readers want their content easy and distilled and prepared like a veggie tray. And these readers make up the vast majority of Medium subscribers.

Get angry at it? Why bother? It's like going to a Raiders game and thinking - Christ these fans are weird. Yeah, exactly. That's who goes. That's their fanbase and there's nothing wrong with them - unless you want something different.

Cool. Then go to a Packers game - if you can find a ticket.

I've seen blind tests done with food - like burgers. With 6 or 7 choices including some high-end stuff, like Kobe beef with a Big Mac and Whopper thrown in. Guess who won? The Big Mac or Whopper.

Why. People love them, trust them, and don't have to think about them.

Same with Medium. There's no formula, there's writing exactly what is being read over and over again, changing some words in the title, in the first sentence, and so on.

Much of Medium's content is GMO, sugar-added, engineered french fries, that actually taste pretty good. A bad thing? Apparently not on this platform.

Oh well. 😁