Rarely does anyone intentionally ask for "medium." We ask for groundbreaking solutions, lightning-fast apps, or enduring legacies. We rarely request the perfectly average, just-okay, comfortably moderate middle ground.
But medium is surprisingly prevalent.
Medium-sized projects shape our lives quietly. They don't change history overnight, nor do they linger poetically over centuries. Medium is the steady hum of a printer that's neither impressively fast nor frustratingly slow — it just reliably spits out paper at an acceptable pace.
Medium is reassuring.
Medium effort is the sweet spot of human ambition. Consider your weekly team meetings — rarely transformative, often repetitive, but necessary enough to keep your project vaguely on track. Medium is the comfort of predictable bureaucracy; processes that take exactly long enough for you to finish a coffee and check your email.
Medium software is profoundly okay.
Software with medium performance rarely gets noticed. It's neither praised nor condemned — it just works. Like Microsoft Word auto-saving your document every 10 minutes, medium doesn't thrill, but it quietly prevents disaster.
Google Docs when your internet is "just fine" — not blazing-fast fibre, not laggy airplane WiFi — just an average home connection. Medium latency: you notice it, you sigh briefly, and move on with life.
Medium demands moderate complexity.
To achieve medium, you balance adding features with mild neglect. Consider Slack’s load time: not instantaneous, not painfully slow, just enough to glance at a notification without impatience. This moderation requires subtle discipline — enough focus to avoid becoming slow, yet never enough obsession to become fast.
Medium institutions are quietly durable.
A medium-sized local business doesn't inspire documentaries or last millennia. It exists profitably for decades, unnoticed by history but beloved locally. Medium is your town’s second-best café — good enough to keep regular customers, not good enough for tourists to Instagram.
Medium-scale science experiments run comfortably within grant cycles. They provide useful insights without revolutionising fields overnight. Medium is a longitudinal study that wraps up neatly in 15 years, influencing policy just enough to matter, never enough to dramatically shift paradigms.
Medium is amusingly ordinary.
We celebrate medium typing speeds: fast enough for emails, not impressive enough for bragging rights. We adjust our expectations accordingly — never disappointed, rarely delighted, always satisfied enough to continue.
Medium is relatively relative.
When everyone chases extremes — fastest, longest, greatest — medium remains steadfastly achievable. It doesn't promise magic or legacy, just quiet reliability. Medium acknowledges our limits, accepts compromise, and delivers precisely the modest impact it promised.
Ultimately, medium is neither impressive nor disappointing; it’s comfortingly adequate.
If you enjoyed this, you might moderately appreciate something else.