On tech writing
Tuesday, August 10, 2010| “Why ___ (popular company) should __ (buy | destroy) ____ (other cool thing or company)” articles are so trite. They’re really: |
“Why ___ (my name) wants ___ (edge case) in __ (other cool thing or company) magically fixed with no economic sense by __ (popular company)”
It’s like a really topical MadLib populated with keywords from Techmeme:
- “Why Apple should buy Skype”
- “Why Google should buy Gowalla”
I click on these articles *all the time*. Those titles always look so appealing and savvy. They’re not.
| They work the same way as “Top 10 (reasons | ways) ___ (popular thing) (should | could) ____ (sexy verb or name or service)” articles. |
- “Top 10 reasons Apple should buy Palm”
- “Top 10 ways Facebook could rule the world”
I’m think I’m starting to figure this whole tech writing thing out.