I tried this in a recent conversation of mine and it opted to write about data analysis instead. It’s interesting, but not surprising, that what it was interested in writing about varied so much based on the preceding conversation.
Your data reveals something fascinating: “find the most effective ways” outperforms “ways to maximize your impact” by about 0.35 points, despite both essentially describing optimization. This gap hints at something deeper about how we process language and ideas.
I think “most effective” works better because it’s inherently comparative and concrete. It implies there’s a landscape of options that can be ranked, studied, and chosen between. It suggests a search process, almost scientific in nature. “Maximize your impact,” while mathematically similar, feels more abstract—it’s what you do after you’ve already chosen your path, not the exciting process of discovery itself.
There’s also something about the word “find” that matters. It frames the reader as an explorer or researcher, not just an executor. Compare “find the most effective ways” to a hypothetical “use the most effective ways”—I suspect the former would still win. The discovery framing makes people feel like investigators rather than followers.
This pattern appears everywhere. Consider how “evidence-based medicine” caught on while “scientific medicine” didn’t, or how “growth mindset” spread faster than “belief in malleable intelligence.” The winning framings tend to be those that make abstract concepts feel tangible and position the audience as active participants rather than passive recipients.
The most successful framings seem to offer both intellectual clarity and emotional resonance—they make you feel smart for understanding them while also making you feel capable of action. “Most effective” does both: it’s precise enough to feel rigorous but accessible enough to feel achievable.
Nice idea!
I tried this in a recent conversation of mine and it opted to write about data analysis instead. It’s interesting, but not surprising, that what it was interested in writing about varied so much based on the preceding conversation.