Last week’s post on Seth Godin had me thinking about how we read blogs, websites, and newspapers. We really like lists. Everything we need to know is researched by smart people and presented into simple slices of content.
“Don’t bother me with nuance. Just give me the main points.”
I wonder if we’ll use lists to teach our children in the 21st century.
- The Top 10 Reasons Why Martin Luther King Jr. Was A Pretty Good Guy
- Six Economic Theories And What You Need To Know To Make Money
- Four Ways Your Body Fights Off Infections
- The Five Great Lakes: Because Six is One Too Many
- Five Ways To Fight Nazis (and win!)
I once had an editor confess that lists are the most tweeted and retweeted articles on her site…
…so this week I’ll write in nothing but lists.
Sorta.
We’ll see how this goes.
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Noooooooo! I have a post planned for Monday which has a “5 reasons blah blah blah” theme. Now it is going to look like I’m copying you……booo you!
And then @billboorman will tweet something and it will all kick off again!
(only kidding Bill!)
Might have to change it for something earnest about the benefits of social media for recruitment instead……
DO YOUR LIST!
Lists are gold for blog post and especially Twitter tweets and RTs! Humans love order as well as agreeing or disagreeing with your list results and order. I look forward to your lists that look to be hilarious!
OMG, please. My lists will be lame.
I honestly think the ‘list’ posts work because they make the reader feel like they are not just slacking off from work by reading blog posts, and that they might actually learn something useful and practical. But the ‘list’ titles and formats are so forced into spelling it all out it that most of them are really boring. For people that write blogs, and especially read lots and lots of blogs (like maybe 5% of the world), the list posts are tedious. But I get why they are so popular with the occasional reader and the editors of more mainstream and popular sites.
My offering for your series – choose a really famous novel from history and break it down to a ‘list’ post. ‘Gatsby: 5 Reasons Old Money trumps New’, or the like.
Steve, wait, that’s a lot of work. I was hoping for the six reasons why I should fire you or something easy like that.
My list on why your readers should reply to your lists, with lists:
1. HR peeps love creating lists for all types processes. We’ve all seen the really bad/old/outdated photocopy of an internal ones for new hires that keeps getting recycled.
2. HR peeps also love to create multiple personal lists (on paper and electronically).
3. HR peeps (and non HR peeps) who love to procrastinate will just move the items they didn’t complete to the new list and feel like they “did something”
4. When creating a list in PowerPoint, you get to use those snazzy “fly-in’s” and dissolves, adding 10 extra minutes to the presentation and making you look like and ass when you can’t use the remote control correctly.
5. The impending “Zombie Apocalypse” will require anyone who’s not infected with the “Zombie Cooties” to communicate in a list format, or they’ll run the risk of getting shot in the head.
I don’t even know why I blog. My week is done. Right here.
With so many blogs in my Google Reader I’ll admit that I appreciate a short, to the point post. Yours are always pretty succint though, so I’ll be curious to see your list format!
So far, so painful.
While admittedly not as sexy as “Six Reasons Why I Should Fire You,” when you’re ready to branch off into checklist territory , I hope you’ll take a look at Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right*. Brilliant book, especially for those of us who are charged with doing complex, yet repetitive, tasks and projects.
* Personally, I think it should have been “How to Get Things Right Every Time.”
Oooh. Nice. Thank you.
Number One on my What should I write about today? is Steal an idea, preferably from TheCynicalGirl or WhyRUStalking Me or MagnificentBastard or Maddox (http://www.iambetterthanyourkids.com/).
Some people read Thoreau, I read the off-kilter.
Thoreau? Who’s that?
Go read Thoreau!
“Kiss on My List” was a number one hit for us. Coincidence? We think not.
It’s perfect.
Where is the rest of your list of the best things in life? Shouldn’t your post look more like this?:
1. Fuzzy little kittens
2. chocolate
3. the smell of fresh laundry
4. your kiss
5. paid holidays
You get the picture
Lists are too complicated. I want to know when we are moving to hieroglyphics or pictograms. Isn’t a picture worth a 1000 words?
The past is the new future.
Dammit, I’m spatially challenged. This (new) old trend sucks.
Heh. In the web design world, good “usability” practice incorporates replacing copy with icons whenever possible…an envelope illustration for “sign up for newsletters”, a magnifying glass for “search”, and of course social media icons and RSS feeds. Basically, don’t make the user think too much. Immediate response is best, they need to know exactly what to do and where to go in just a second. So it’s already happening. When it’s done right, the user doesn’t even realize it.
back in top form, looking forward to some lists.
how about the ten most useless HR sayings, starting with “people are our most important asset” ?
“At the end of the day…”
That’s not a useless HR saying but I hate it.
Happy Listivus!!!
LOL
<!—I love lists! Bring it on!
—>
Boo. It took away my markup. Bad Wordpress.
For those of you who love lists, try the ultimate List Universe: http://listverse.com. It’s full of weird and wonderful lists indexed by category. Enjoy!
Laurie, thank you for keeping it real.
cracked.com
Reminds me of this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?_r=1&hp
Similar phenomenon.
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