For me the change happened by force yes, but also I think (subconsciously) by an effort vs reward comparison. Longer pieces = more effort = more hurt when they don't perform.

Shorter pieces are easier to write and move on from.

Also, I believe readers (including myself) prefer spending 2*2*2*2 minutes on four pieces instead of 16 on one. It's classic conditioning in the age of internet content, sadly.

However, the occasional longer piece does very well on Medium, challenging all norms, expectations, and predictions.

So, what I do is trick my brain. Once in 15 days, I'll write a longer piece to assure myself that I'm still the old me and that audience expectations or trends can't change me. Then I'll write a bunch of short ones (2-3 minute reads) to please the narcissist chasing numbers.

I do think it's important to do what we want to do, instead of buying into the narrative that the world is a certain way and we need to adapt and so on. That's too depressing, thinking that we have no control. But sometimes we have to do what is expected--within reason.

TL;DR: Let's try different things and see what works. Lol.