If you want people to see what you write, and you aren't already famous, Medium will put your content in front of more people than a self-run blog.
That is Medium's real competitive edge. It is hard to get your blog noticed. If you want to beat Medium, you need to beat them at that.
> It is hard to get your blog noticed.
I think if you write good content, and post it on good programming communities like HN or Reddit, I don't think its that hard to get it noticed.
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[1]: https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/we-just-moved-off-of-me...
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Edit: formatting