Man this gave me a good laugh not going to lie...

I admit I'm not proud of everything I have written in the past - a part of me even considered "deleting" many of these hyperbolic articles - but I let them stay as a "relic of the past" I can look back as a writer.

In my defence, I've never "lied" in my titles - nor have I said "these WILL save YOU time" like most other gurus do.

The 3 unsexy habits that saved me 30+ hours a week - they actually did. Maybe not 30, but 20? Maybe not now, but at the time I wrote the article.

Same goes for the others I have penned - exaggeration and dramatization, yes. But lies? Nope. Never.

While I've matured as a writer and person (and no longer pen such shallow cliche-type articles), it's sad that most others are continuing (to encourage) the same behavior.

In a way, Boost has been a blessing - allowing writers the luxury of penning deep, nuanced, unique articles and getting paid for it (It's these exact articles that used to earn pennies despite 30-40+ hours put into them before).

Anupam, your outrage is totally justified here - and the old landscape of articles was really a regurgitation and remixing pool.

But with Boost, I hope things are going to change (they already are changing). A bold step in a world dominated by algos and clickbait.

P.S. A fun fact is the "Unsexy X to save Y time" template was my invention. Thousands of copycats soon popped up after that article went semi-viral (I admit it's one of my least-proud creations - the diamonds of old are hiding in obscurity).

Since my epiphany of sorts that made it impossible to pen the shallow fluff I've penned in the past, I'm doing my bit to bring genuine unique value to Medium and the online space now.

Thanks for writing this man! The fact that I could laugh at this with genuine humour rather than get butt-hurt shows that I myself have grown past my old writing.