Top 16 Reasons Why Human Beings Love Lists

by Mitch Ditkoff

This just in.

My three most popular postings on this blog have one thing in common: They are all lists.

1. 100 Simple Ways to Be More Creative on the Job


2. The Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating


3. 26 Reasons Why Most Brainstorming Sessions Don't Work

While I acknowledge that these three postings are engaging, entertaining, and useful, I don't think they are that much more engaging, entertaining, and useful than the rest of the stuff on our blog to warrant as much attention as they've been getting.

Something else is afoot.

And that, I believe, is the medium through which the content of these postings have been communicated: Lists.

What's up with lists? Why so popular? Why does every men's and women's magazine plaster their covers with them? Why do blogs?

After some major noodling on the topic and a few consultations with the Master of the Tradition, I am very pleased to report my recent findings to you. Here we go...


THE TOP 16 REASONS WHY HUMAN BEINGS LOVE LISTS

1. We are all victims of information overload. Lists help us make sense of the world.


2. Lists simplify.


3. Lists promise instant knowledge.


4. Lists make it seem as if the list maker knows something that list readers don't.


5. Lists appeal to an ever expanding population of ADD sufferers.


6. Lists provide choices.


7. Lists are made of soundbytes. Soundbytes 'R Us.


8. Lists appeal to the left brain need for order and linearity.


9. Lists are familiar. We grew up making them: laundry lists, grocery lists, and Christmas lists.


10. Lists can be updated, added to, or subtracted from easily.


11. Lists give us an instant opportunity to disagree.


12. Lists, with their declarative headlines, make list readers feel like they are just about to get a crash course on a topic of great significance.


13. Lists, when forwarded to friends or clients, position the list forwarder as a knowledgeable resource.


14. Lists include items that are numbered - and most readers assume that an item that's numbered must be more true than an item that's merely bulleted.


15. Lists can be printed quickly, folded up, and put into one's pocket - as opposed to New Yorker articles, the collected works of Henry Miller, or Sunday's New York Times.


16. Lists are great ways for list makers, especially in the hyperlinked blogosphere, to plug their own businesses and books, not to mention the businesses and books of their friends, chiropractors, and college roommates.

PS: If we've omitted any TOP REASONS why human beings love lists, leave us a comment. When we get ten or more, we'll post what our readers have sent us. As a list, of course.


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Mitch Ditkoff is the Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions and the author of "Awake at the Wheel", as well as the very popular Heart of Innovation blog.