A brutally honest account of how I got my followers.

In the beginning, there was none.

Then I added the first follower.

After the first follower, I added the second one.

Now there were 2.

Then 2 more joined.

It was at this point that I got to 4.

What happened after 4 is that someone else followed me so I ended up with 5 followers.

Before I had 6 followers, I continued to have 5 followers.

Someone had to follow me so I could get from 5 to 6.

So with yet another follower, I got from 5 to 6.

Interestingly, I wouldn’t get to 7 followers if yet again someone new wouldn’t follow me. Do you see what I mean? No new followers — no getting from 6 to 7.

It was at this point that I started suspecting a pattern.

But it was still just a hypothesis. A hypothesis needs testing. So I continued observing and verifying my calculations.

Every new follower or a batch of followers became an addition to my count. Eventually, I was able to reach 100. Keep in mind again, that before I had to reach 100, I had to be at 99, no 99 without 98.

I also started noticing some stories on Medium on how to get more followers. Most of them missed the point. In the end, it’s not an art of some kind. It’s pure maths. But I guess some people like bullshitting and attracting attention.

On my experience of making money from writing on Medium you can read here. Generally, I keep this part of my life under the radar but in this story I reveal it all.