1. Numbers
Why do we need to have a number in the title of an article?
7 consumer trends for 2021. 3 reasons to care for employees. 5 things that are going to change in 2021. The 7 habits of a good manager. The 13 new jobs in the future. 6 things you need to know about nothing at all.
Who the heck has come up with this idea? I know at least 50 ways to make his or her life miserable.
2. Reading time
Why do we need to know how long it will take to read the article? What fool has ever decided that? Why do people tell me, Rik, no more than 5 minutes, but 3 minutes is even better.
When I started writing blogs, in the dark Middle Ages of the zero’s, a short blog was 1800 words. Then the needle moved to 900 words. Now it is like 540 words. What can one say in 540 words and 3 minutes of reading time? Exactly.
In 2030 we are going to look back at the last decade and we are going to wonder why there are civil wars in which one primitive tribe is fighting another over yes or no and we are going to realize (in max 50 words an 45 seconds by then) that it is because people can only think in black or white.
50 shades of gray do ask for more than 540 words and 3 minutes and colors (my goodness, the complexity of colors) demand at least 1800 words and 10 minutes of your time and even some usage of that thing called the brain.
A black and white 540 word world is creating a Trumpian ugly desert of brainless flatliners.
3. New
Everything needs to be new, although most just isn’t. But of course in a 540 max world, one can’t expect the reader to know that what he is about to read in 3 minutes is just a microwave warming up of a concept that has already been used like 101 times before.
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