Exactly Mr. Larry. Nobody would just suddenly start writing that often irrespective of their writing experience or quality unless there is an inbuilt reward system.

Medium says that you needn't be a pro level writer to write and earn here. This itself motivates people to join. Even if they aren't pro's.

Here in Medium there is something called EPR. That's something they created. Ever since you join Medium you know that you are going to earn certain amount of money per read and you get used to that amount. Hence you continue putting in those efforts. You get hooked. Although that amount is actually nowhere near an amount that you would earn at a full time job. But the gradual growth that you see in your reads, earnings, views, followers and engagement keeps motivating you to work even harder. To achieve those you would need to devote time not just to writing, but also to reading and genuinely engaging with other writer's articles even if you don't like to read them.

That's the hook and to get out of it, it isn't that easy. It's sunk cost fallacy.

One thing that Mr. Douglas said that I too agree is that we should not blindly believe those influencers who teaches you shortcuts and tips to earn $10000 using Medium. These people should have been banned by Medium. But they wouldn't. They enjoy the leads that they generate. They enjoy the engagement that they boost on the platform.