Bill Riddell

The 3 Ways to Ignorance

I read quite a lot, from books, blogs and everywhere else.

One thing that has been irking me lately is the overuse among many bloggers of lists.

You see them everywhere: ‘173 Get Rich Gimmicks’, ‘43 Ways to Sell Your Soul’, ‘5 Simple Steps to Stalk Your Ex’.

It is getting tiring people.

So I thought if you cant beat them, join them. Without further delay I regretfully present ‘the 3 ways to ignorance’:

1. Accept that people love their life lessons in list format and that you should too
2. Believe that each list is a sure fire recipe for success, happiness & anything else you desire in life
3. Do not question the authenticity of the list writer or the list they present

Now don’t get me wrong, list are a great way to summarize a lot of information and to refresh ideas previously learnt. Lists have there place in getting across information.

However they are being abused by so many people lately. It is like looking at the PowerPoint notes of speech without listening to the speaker. Sure you will probably understand the basics of the topic but you will not absorb the true lesson.

There are two primary reasons I believe why bloggers are so fond of their lists.

First of all they are lazy. Hammering out a shopping list is a lot easier than crafting a readable post. They subscribe to the quantity of quality notion and pump out meaningless articles in rapid-fire succession.

The second reason is because list are appealing to people with ADD-like attention spans who cannot be bothered reading an informative article. Catering to DIGG addicts is one way of attracting readers to your blog, but I would much rather attract a few people who will take the time to learn something important than thousands of people who will get their quick meaningless information fix and move on.

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Since I do not like to dwell on the negative in life and seriously hesitated in sharing this post I will end with a more beneficial message – believe in yourself and think positively.

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

Henry Ford envisaged building a huge company from nothing and producing cars for the masses when they were only within reach of the wealthy. He thought he could do that and he proved himself right.

What do you believe you can achieve?