How I became an atheist with a Goddess streak — I have always been an atheist. When I say always, I mean as long as I can remember. I’m one of those weird people who has lucid memories from age two, even younger. In the case of my atheism, it was at my fifth birthday party that I declared to…

I signed a non-disclosure agreement. I’m publishing this anyway. — I would like to tell you my story of harassment, intimidation, and assault in the workplace. I need to tell you. But I can’t. Still, I will. You see I signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and settled out of court (for a pittance). I am not doing this to dump…

Good for you, Melissa! I can't do work either. The job I wrote about on Medium (with all the sexual harassment etc) was my last "real" job. I am so happy for that. Regarding taking away the free snacks, that is classic. Patriarchy and Capitalism want to keep everyone as far down on Maslow's hierarchy of needs as possible, so we never achieve self-actualization. When we drop out of the traditional job world, painful as it is, we do an end run around their strategy.

Why does The Algorithm insist we want to read what we don’t? — Dear Medium Algorithm, why do you insist I read what I don’t want to? I’ve done all you recommend to clear this up, but it hasn’t. Instead I have to hunt for the poetry, art, fiction, and literary criticism I want to read. I am a “top writer in Feminism” but I hardly even get recommendations for feminist stories. Instead I am served up shit, “stories” about making money, how to gain 100 followers (I have way more), or the ins-and-outs of YouTube. I am not here to make money; I live in a country where I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I just don’t get it.

what a great idea! I will do this! I am far enough along with my current manuscript that I know what my characters look like (I've even picked up some of their bad habits), but it took a lot longer to know what they look like than it should have. Thank you, great article!

Capitalism is fundamentally wrong becuase it is based on the exploitation of the working class, i.e. nearly all of us. Imagine a Capitalist sells a smartphone for $500. I'll be generous and say the raw materials cost him $100. The labor cost let's say is $50. I'll even allow him $50 for marketing and overhead. That leaves the Capitalist with $300 which he has stolen from the workers. The people who made the phone donated those $300 of their effort to simply enrich the Capitalist. He himself did nothing to earn that money.

time to focus — I’ve been wrestling with Medium since I joined three weeks ago. Is it yet another social media time-sink, verging on a black hole? A great place to hone my writing skills? A source of thought-provoking, inspiring, fun, or downright irritating reads?A place to meet simpatico people? A distraction from completing…

some stories cannot be told in "smaller chunks". Explain the plight of Palestinians in a 2 minute read. Moby Dick in smaller chunks? Social media has made a sea change, forcing us to write in tiny little bits. Everything needs to be an elevator pitch. And this has a real, chilling effect on ever telling stories which need to be told. Of course the algorithms used by social media behemoths, and even Medium, penalize us mightily if we don't post small chunks; algorithms want us to publish uncontroversial pablum, and we'd better do it every single day.

Medium and the language of money — There is a German expression “ich brauche Kohle”, “I need money”. Kohl (der Kohl, plural Kohle) means “cabbage”. When I was young this made total sense. You can eat cabbage; my mother cooked lots of cabbage, mostly stuffed. Cabbage is green, money is green (I was reared in the US…