Wait! Do you work for pennies? I'm getting incredible amounts of dough from Medium (link to my article)

Joke aside.

I agree we're working for pennies. BUT they're not fixed.

It's a lottery.

We're buying a ticket to the viral article that will bring $$$. (And even better, we're paid pennies to buy the ticket.)

If the pennies were in a fixed amount, we would be much less likely to engage. Would I write knowing that my piece is going to make $0.10? I'm not sure. Likely not as much. I'm not saying it's rational (although can be discussed). I'm saying there's a huge pleasure reward in the potential surprise of virality. (Hence the plastering of Medium links. Which, as you know, doesn't work much. Not a good ROI in any case)

It's a bit like the power of free. We act very differently in terms of consumption if something is free than if we have to pay for it (even a very small amount.)

I think, in the same manner, we engage differently if there's a potential (improbable) huge upside.

In this context, a fixed referral would be like knowing upfront my article will make $0.10.

Not good.

Actually, in the referral case, you could make lifetime value calculations and easily (easier than with articles) put a price on the upside of referring someone. But it's complicated. We don't do the calculation, and we (psychological bias) think it's infinite. Therefore more attractive.

Again, please note that I'm not saying your solution isn't fairer or better on some metric. Overall, I like your idea. I'm saying however that the way the program is constructed at the moment is taking better advantage of our psychological bias and is more efficient in terms of bringing new people to the platform. [It doesn't mean it's more efficient in terms of overall good for the society (different metric).]

Regarding superstars. It's a different topic.

First, I think referral programs, in general, are more of a grassroots type of movement.

Second, they were already (very) actively promoting Medium by promoting their 'brand' and their courses.

I'm sure superstars are happy with this new income stream, but I would say it's a nice surprise for them. They were doing it for free and now they can get paid. Maybe it's a way for Medium to keep them more involved with the platform instead of investing time/money in substack or other stuff.

Also, superstars are more rational about all these numbers. If you're big enough, viral hits are much less of a lottery and much more of a job. There's enough data to start looking at things rationally. While the average Smillew/writer is blind! :)

Thanks for the very interesting discussion.