Three reasons why I hate Top 10 lists

Actually, I don’t discriminate.

I hate Top 25, 10, 7, 5 and [insert number here] lists. Blogs love lists, and it’s the best way to land on the front page of Digg.

And though I occasionally write ‘em (I wrote 25 ways your business can help fight poverty just yesterday), I’m not a fan of the format.

Here’s why:

1. Top X lists may be easy to read (and write), but they aren’t a great way to communicate detail or ideas. You wouldn’t want to learn a foreign language reading Top 10 lists, would you?
2. Our brain isn’t wired for long lists. We struggle with seven numbers, so retaining a list more than four or five ideas requires real effort. We remember beginnings, endings and ideas extremely relevant to us individually.
3. We retain stories, not details. Remember History class? You probably remember the stories, but you’ve forgotten the rote facts, dates and statistics.

In some ways, Top X lists are like a pumpkin full of Halloween candy:

It looks great, so you consume it.
When you’re done, you forget what you consumed.
It’s mostly empty calories.

Top X posts are good for supplemental reference material—a way to communicate loosely-related information thematically—but they don’t do a good job of transferring knowledge.

Will I continue to write Top X posts? Now and then. We’re all busy and these lists are easy to digest for quick reading.

I just hope you, Responsible Marketer, are okay with an occasional bag full of candy in your intellectual diet.

Are you cool with an occasional Top X lists, or should I lay off the info-carbs?

I’m all ears.

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