The Billionaire’s Typewriter

Matthew Butterick’s scrutiny of Medium reveals it to be “a form of human fracking”:

In “Death to Typewriters,” Medium insists that the typewriter is its “sworn enemy.” In certain typographic details, maybe so. But as a device that imposes homogeneous design, Medium still has a lot in common with the typewriter.

In fact, its ethics are actually worse than the traditional typewriter. Why? Because Medium’s homogeneous design has nothing to do with limitations of the underlying technology (in this case, the web)… it’s a deliberate choice that lets Medium extract value from the talent and labor of others.

Convenience always has a cost.