Taking Some Notes of our Medium Stats
Statistics are an amazing thing. Those intricate numbers, graphs, and scatterplots of data reveal deeper patterns about any phenomenon under the sun. They offer insights and working frameworks. Like so many other wonders, stats speak for themselves and share amazing stories. As wondrous as they are, statistics and facts also have a dimension of unbounded complexity and mystique to them.
Like anything else, any statistics or facts have that level of multi-dimensionality to them. Many of their distinct aspects are captured from different frames of reference. The world is full of people who live 100% of the time with the impacts from one-in-a-million occurrences(whether positive or negative). On a grander scale, our glimpses into the universe reveal exoplanets where the underlying laws of Nature manifest in the most obscure of ways. Events that would be next to impossible on Earth (like raining glass) are everyday occurrences in other worlds.
Also, statistics and facts help illuminate that immeasurable dimension pervading everything. For instance, the statistics about our genetic profiles and physical traits reveals how infinitely unique each one of us is. Also, statistics’ revealed underlying patterns and hidden secrets help us to tap into what is constant and enduring in the world around us while also falling short of capturing the deeper why and sheer wonder of universe’s unfolding drama itself.
Zooming into Medium, what are we to make of the amazing stats configured for writers? How are we to consider views, reads, or even claps? How about the uniqueness of a works’ topics in relation to all the other pieces tagged under that topic?
Certainly, part of this is based on the viewpoint one is looking from. If we are to start from the framework of gathering a following, earning more income, or building a brand for ourselves, certainly we focus on the number of views compared to reads and strive to print within the publications or topics that garner more readers. But if we want a a piece to strike a deeper chord within readers without focusing as much on the fame or green, we certainly would be more inclined to cite the statistics for total reading time, claps, and even number of responses.
And then we see how easy it is for our Medium statistics to illuminate the immeasurable. For instance, how many times might statistics show it was that one share on an outside social media platform or web resource that made the piece go viral and thus perhaps bring in extra funds? And how many times might Medium writers find there were but a few lone readers who found lasting enrichment from their piece to the point of giving it maximum claps?
There are certainly countless other points and facets to the value of statistics — and particularly Medium statistics — that have not been explored here. Just like anything else, we have barely scraped from the surface here.
