Hmm. It seems like weâve indeed identified the two cruxes.
Regarding the benefits: I donât see why numbered list titles would help a reader make good decisions about whether to engage with a post? In particular, given that they could in any case use the title (whatever its form), the summary-type thing (which ideally there would be) and/âor the first paragraph (if thatâs different), the word count /â scrolling to see how long it seems, and the karma and comments?
Regarding the extent to which numbered list titles grab attention in a way that isnât correlated with whatâs useful for the reader or where the reader can provide value: Maybe at some point I should look for empirical evidence, or at least better theorising, regarding this. Currently I think we just have different intuitions/âanecdata.
In particular, given that they could in any case use the title (whatever its form), the summary-type thing (which ideally there would be) and/âor the first paragraph (if thatâs different), the word count /â scrolling to see how long it seems, and the karma and comments?
Maybe Iâm missing something, but I feel like this is an always-general argument against all informative title names?
Maybe at some point I should look for empirical evidence, or at least better theorising, regarding this. Currently I think we just have different intuitions/âanecdata.
I agree that we have different intuitions and empirical data may help resolve this.
Maybe Iâm missing something, but I feel like this is an always-general argument against all informative title names?
I donât think soâI think itâs quite clear how itâs easier for a reader to make good choices about whether to read this post if itâs called âSome history topics it might be very valuable to investigateâ than if it was called (for example) âTopicsâ or âHistory stuffâ or âWhat you can do with historyâ. But I just donât immediately see why changing it from the current title to â10 history topics it might be very valuable to investigateâ would help the reader make good choices?
It seems like whether itâs about history and whether itâs research topics is useful info, but whether itâs 3 or 10 or 20 isnât very useful, especially given that I probably couldâve included roughly the same content under 3 topics or split it up into 20.
And then the word count /â scrolling is relevant because, if the consideration is âhow long will this take me?â, then word count /â scrolling seems to address that better than reading one topic and multiplying by the stated number of topics. (The latter requires reading a topic before deciding, and the topics may actually differ in length.)
(Of course, there may be a reason Iâm missing; I wouldnât be that surprised if you said one sentence and then I went âOh yeah, fair point, I shouldâve thought of that.â)
Hmm. It seems like weâve indeed identified the two cruxes.
Regarding the benefits: I donât see why numbered list titles would help a reader make good decisions about whether to engage with a post? In particular, given that they could in any case use the title (whatever its form), the summary-type thing (which ideally there would be) and/âor the first paragraph (if thatâs different), the word count /â scrolling to see how long it seems, and the karma and comments?
Regarding the extent to which numbered list titles grab attention in a way that isnât correlated with whatâs useful for the reader or where the reader can provide value: Maybe at some point I should look for empirical evidence, or at least better theorising, regarding this. Currently I think we just have different intuitions/âanecdata.
Maybe Iâm missing something, but I feel like this is an always-general argument against all informative title names?
I agree that we have different intuitions and empirical data may help resolve this.
I donât think soâI think itâs quite clear how itâs easier for a reader to make good choices about whether to read this post if itâs called âSome history topics it might be very valuable to investigateâ than if it was called (for example) âTopicsâ or âHistory stuffâ or âWhat you can do with historyâ. But I just donât immediately see why changing it from the current title to â10 history topics it might be very valuable to investigateâ would help the reader make good choices?
It seems like whether itâs about history and whether itâs research topics is useful info, but whether itâs 3 or 10 or 20 isnât very useful, especially given that I probably couldâve included roughly the same content under 3 topics or split it up into 20.
And then the word count /â scrolling is relevant because, if the consideration is âhow long will this take me?â, then word count /â scrolling seems to address that better than reading one topic and multiplying by the stated number of topics. (The latter requires reading a topic before deciding, and the topics may actually differ in length.)
(Of course, there may be a reason Iâm missing; I wouldnât be that surprised if you said one sentence and then I went âOh yeah, fair point, I shouldâve thought of that.â)