You’ve likely seen an inbox-ful of “best of” lists.
They’re especially popular at the end of the year: best songs, movies, books.
Maybe you’ve written something like this yourself. I sure have.
There’s a great book and movie, High Fidelity, that makes liberal use of the “top 5” format. The main character, Rob, owns a record store, so many of his lists are music-related: Top 5 Side One, Track Ones, or Top 5 Recording Artists.
Rob has also recently split from his girlfriend, so we also get Top 5 Most Memorable Breakups and Top 5 Things Rob Misses About Laura.
And introspective lists like Rob’s Top 5 Dream Jobs:
- Journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, 1976–1979
- Producer for Atlantic Records, 1964–1971
- Any kind of musician (“besides classical or rap”)
- Film director (“any kind except German or silent”)
- Architect
Somehow, he forgot to include “record store owner.”
I love a good list. I look at my task app every hour or more.
Give me a blank sheet of paper, and I’ll write a list.
But in the years since High Fidelity, lists have developed a stigma, especially when padded to blog post length. They’re viewed as shallow or low-value.
List-form content even earned a mocking term: “Listicles.” They’re common for a reason—sites like Buzzfeed wouldn’t use them so often if they didn’t work well.
The thing about lists is they’re:
- Short
- Scannable
- Actionable
There’s a reason we’ve gravitated to this format.
When it comes to list content for developers, you may get a little pushback. Especially if it sniffs of clickbait. But if you can follow through with substance, you have a flexible, efficient way to communicate your message. A way to share your product’s opinions (uh oh, another movie reference behind that link).
And there’s early evidence that these sort of info-packed pieces are liked by LLMs as much as search engines and humans. We’ll be sharing some of that research soon, where we saw plenty of actionable guides ranked highly.
While everyone is highlighting their “best of” lists for next year, make your Top 5 Projects to Help More Developers.
Tap reply and share it. I promise I won’t call it shallow.