You speak the truth brother! Medium or writing in general won't make most anyone anything. However, I have an interesting take on the "hidden" benefits of writing. I am a recipient of such benefits so I can speak first hand. I am a non-native English speaker who loves English since kindergarten. I wrote a dozen tech book in my 20s when Web was new. Books that sold in every major languages throughout the world. Hack, I even attended author book signings in NYC's Javits convention center. Even though these books were great projects for me at the early stage of my professional career, their impact was felt the most when I entered into tech business. I was able to raise VC money, acquire large contracts and get respects in many large companies because I was brave enough to put out what I knew in written format. Now fast forward to my 40s, I know write for fun and purely from passion. My writing on Medium pays for medium's subscription and nothing more. I still love writing here as it is a great platform. I experiment with many platforms but currently moved a bit away from Medium during the pandemic and switched to vlogging on YouTube. I have found vlogging to be very enjoyable as well. So I think as long as we like what we are doing, it does not matter what direct rewards we get from it. What does matter are all the indirect rewards -- personal satisfaction tops that chart. Being an author is a fun hobby. As a parent of two kindergarteners, I am constantly trying to figure out how to introduce my kids to freestyle writing. I even proposed a MEDIUMKIDS.COM but that fall in deaf ears. :)