Thank you for writing this, so I don't have to. I see already far too many writers looking at Tony as if he is the next Messiah. That is both unrealistic and unnecessary pressure. Users will ask for all sorts of weird shit because they think everyone uses the platform like they do. Platform owners however often make decisions based on data and A-B testing. The new feed they are testing, I hope the test fails, but then again, it might not, and I don't necessarily want the feed to go back to what it was. All I want is a favourites section which is something that I have enough data on to know it's a valid request.

I agree with you, there are folks at Medium who are paid to figure all this out. What Tony needs to do is elevate everyone and empower good decisions. He doesn't even have to be all hands-off to do this effectively. Steve Jobs wasn't, yet somehow he managed to gather an excellent group of leaders around him who he could work with. My question for Tony would be "What should Medium look like in 5 years and what is its role in society, on the web?" This is a platform where presidents write essays, that's no small feat. Medium has power, and Tony needs to help turn that power up to 100. The details... not his job.