Moving to Medium

Remember blogging? Those were the days. I’ve been running my own hosted WordPress blog for many, many years across a bunch of different hosts. I used to blog a lot, then I blogged a little, then the other day I remembered that I hadn’t updated my blog in nearly two years. Still up on the homepage: our book is out! Go get it! Circa February 2014.

The old JayGoldman.com homepage, with the last blog post

I used to devour content through RSS feeds, but these days I seem to get more and more of it from places like Medium. I’ve watched it evolve from the early days, when our Geoff Teehan and Jon Lax were leading the effort to design the first version and you had to apply to publish. Ev Williams seems to know what he’s doing when it comes to publishing platforms, and I think he’s got it right again. It’s a joy to write here — a simplicity of expression that just feels right — and so I’ve made the publishing move to match my consumption patterns. I’ve moved to Medium.

Why move to Medium?

The answer is pretty simple: a built-in audience of people who like longer form posts, who return every day and trust Medium to deliver good content, and who subscribe to publications they want to follow. It’s hard to achieve the same as an independent blogger. Even my first few posts here saw recommendations and network effects and I’m just getting started.

I’m not sure it’s the right call for everyone — there’s a lot less customizability here than there would be on your own WordPress or on Tumblr — but if you just want somewhere to write and publish, and you like people to read what you create, you might consider doing the same.

JayGoldman.com

Custom domains for publications was one of the big announcements in Ev’s recent Taking Medium to the Next Level post, so I seized the moment and setup a new publication for myself: j. Following the instructions in the Move Your Domain to Medium post, I emailed customdomains@medium.com and quickly received a response with detailed instructions. Setup was pretty easy, and now you can find me (as you always could), at https://jaygoldman.com.

What I’m going to write

I have no plan, which is often the best kind of plan. So far, I’ve written about robot turtles and lasers, the worst cars in the world, and the awesome Osmo iPad accessory for kids. I’ll probably write about what we’re up to at Sensei Labs, and share some of our thinking as it continues to evolve from The Decoded Company. Feel free to make requests as comments!