I often say "I'm a good egg just trying to find my dozen" and make the case that giving people initial benefit of the doubt is not optimistic or naive, but rather a competitive advantage. It all begins with a question - On a scale of 1-5 (5 being great), what do you assume someone is when you first meet them? This highlighted section walks thru why we should all start at 5.
thanks so much for this article. reducing ideas and people to viral seo keywords in a headline is something i’ve always struggled with, it just feels like such a serious disservice to the individual i’m interviewing. besides reducing women to these labels, i also feel that content that’s directed towards women falls victim to this reductive nomenclature. for eg. with the resurgence of people’s fascination with technology as an artistic medium, i felt similarly about the slew of articles that are talking about “tech bro” devices that can now be “cutesy” and “bedazzled”, trying to infantilise these devices into something that can only NOW be enjoyed by women. it’s so sad, because computer science was a women’s science, a complex language that was shaped by women, but has now sadly been reduced to a masculine “tech bro” monolith that’s particularly peddled by media outlets. i wonder if we could ever move past these reductions and actually go back to having beautiful headlines that aren’t just engineered for engagement 😞
Urgh I so feel you. It's something that I've done soooo many times because of style guides used by a lot of publications. It's also hard to get someone to read something unless it immediately grabs their attention, and that's easier to get when it's a word they're familiar with. It's a tricky line to toe. For me, it matters why you are deciding to talk about something in the first place. If you write something from the place of, 'People need to hear this, and it's adding something necessary to the discussion," it's good to co-opt the word in a headline if it means someone is more likely to read something you genuinely believes needs to be read. Hope that helps - like I said, I also struggle with this!! x
We can never be, nor should we want to be boxed into a one, two or three word viral term. <3
facts
In response to your last line "...seeing the best in them instead," you might appreciate this section called "Finding my dozen." https://followsoar.substack.com/i/195020322/finding-my-dozen
I often say "I'm a good egg just trying to find my dozen" and make the case that giving people initial benefit of the doubt is not optimistic or naive, but rather a competitive advantage. It all begins with a question - On a scale of 1-5 (5 being great), what do you assume someone is when you first meet them? This highlighted section walks thru why we should all start at 5.
Ooh will check it out
thanks so much for this article. reducing ideas and people to viral seo keywords in a headline is something i’ve always struggled with, it just feels like such a serious disservice to the individual i’m interviewing. besides reducing women to these labels, i also feel that content that’s directed towards women falls victim to this reductive nomenclature. for eg. with the resurgence of people’s fascination with technology as an artistic medium, i felt similarly about the slew of articles that are talking about “tech bro” devices that can now be “cutesy” and “bedazzled”, trying to infantilise these devices into something that can only NOW be enjoyed by women. it’s so sad, because computer science was a women’s science, a complex language that was shaped by women, but has now sadly been reduced to a masculine “tech bro” monolith that’s particularly peddled by media outlets. i wonder if we could ever move past these reductions and actually go back to having beautiful headlines that aren’t just engineered for engagement 😞
Urgh I so feel you. It's something that I've done soooo many times because of style guides used by a lot of publications. It's also hard to get someone to read something unless it immediately grabs their attention, and that's easier to get when it's a word they're familiar with. It's a tricky line to toe. For me, it matters why you are deciding to talk about something in the first place. If you write something from the place of, 'People need to hear this, and it's adding something necessary to the discussion," it's good to co-opt the word in a headline if it means someone is more likely to read something you genuinely believes needs to be read. Hope that helps - like I said, I also struggle with this!! x