Long lists attract people.
100 ways to lose weight overnight without trying
97 things Jesus never said but you wish he did
223 ways to make a rocket ship out of a broken paper clip
I think lengthy lists can be valuable, especially when they contain helpful resources in niche areas. I’m pro-list, as I’ve crafted my fair share of them.
I made a list of 14 lessons I learned from living and leading abroad, the 28 things you need to know to teach yourself design, and 30 questions to evaluate your work performance.
However, Matt Ragland’s post at Life, Prioritized on the problem with long lists challenged me. Here’s what Matt says,
Going overboard with long lists is basically a way for me to show off how much I know about a topic, while burdening someone with a wave of options that can’t possibly be fulfilled.
My point is not to dumb down our lists or limit the access of knowledge…I’d rather have a trusted friend or writer recommend 4-5 [things] she adores…
At first I disagreed. The following was my internal dialogue.
Long lists are the best! Yeah! They have lots of stuff on them and things to do and ways to do that stuff with those things. Then I can pick and choose what I want to do on that list and then completely forget about them and then not do any of it.
That’s when I realized the issue with long lists.
The problem isn’t that they’re long. The problem is they aren’t actionable.
If some bookworm recommends the 100 best business books of 2013 in a ranked list, I need an incredible amount of context decide which of those 100 would be the best for me to start with.
I don’t own a business. I don’t work a desk job. I don’t take part in inside sales. I’m not a CEO. Those facts alone would likely rule out half of the recommendations based on the context of my work. It’s not to say those books wouldn’t be helpful, it’s just unlikely they would be the most helpful.
If I don’t know exactly where to begin, especially if there are no summaries or suggestions made (which is normally the case in massive lists), I probably won’t begin at all.
We encounter analysis paralysis: we can’t decide what to do or where to start, so we don’t decide and don’t start.
An abundance of choice often leads to inaction. Sheena Iyengar performed a study on consumer purchasing options by split testing two different jam stands at a grocery store: a large display containing 24 jams and a small display with only 6 jams.
Here are the results of the experiment.
60 percent [of customers entering the store] were drawn to the large assortment but only 40 percent to the small one.
30 percent of the people who had seen the small assortment decided to buy jam, but only 3 percent bought a jar after seeing the large assortment.
What do those results mean? It shows that more options attract more people (60% vs. 40%) but that fewer options lead to increased sales (3% of large display viewers purchased jam, while 30% of small display made a jam purchase).
So, if the results held true in the online world, long, amazing, “extraordinary” lists would attract more viewers (and a quick glance at Mashable shows long lists get lots of shares), but they would also likely yield less action.
What do we do with that information?
The Solution to Long Lists
I don’t think we have to nix long lists completely. They still have value. But first, let’s start with how to make sure they don’t offer any value.
How to Make a Craptastic List
1. Give no context. Just a long list of books, podcasts, blogs or musical artists with no background, information, summary or genre.
2. Don’t provide links. It’s 1000% harder to Google something than it is to click a direct link [results of that hypothetical study pending]. A simple hyperlink makes everybody happier.
3. Don’t curate well. Throw anything onto the list: books you didn’t actually read, articles and studies that are lame, artists that only have one good song. Anything will do, just make it long!
Now that you know how to make your lists completely worthless, here’s how to make the most remarkable, helpful lists this side of the World Wide Web.
How to Make an Awesome List
1. Start with why. The ever popular business platitude from Simon Sinek calls us to give a reason for what do. 100 business books isn’t super helpful, but 10 business books to start a business in college, bootstrap your way to profitability and continue churning out amazing products is a way more specific, understandable list, and we know why we’re reading it.
2. Give tons of context. A few short sentences makes a world of difference. Give the main idea, thought, genre, purpose of whatever it is your listing. Tell people who it would be great for, and who wouldn’t get as much from it.
3. Make it actionable. If you can create the list in a way that people can walk through step by step, you’ll have created the most awesome list on the internet. Practically no one says “Start here, read this book, then this one, do this in between.” It may seem like you’re holding readers hands, and you are, but guiding them through the process enables them to complete the list.
4. Tell me why it’s the best. Why should I read this book instead of that one? Why should I buy this artist’s music instead of the new album by other groups I like? Be compelling in convincing me you’ve discovered the best tool, program or content.
5. Be ruthless in curation. Don’t add things to the list just to have a longer list. In fact, a shorter list is more valuable if it’s full of all-star suggestions.