"X things that you must do to be Y"

Hey lovely people ❤️,

Lately I have been scrolling a bit through articles (on Dev, but also general subjects) and the thing I see a lot are article titles like:

• 10 things you must know as a good Software Developer;
• 5 things you should not do as a beginner;
• 8 mistakes beginners make;
• etc.

You get the idea of it.

What's up?

I have noticed these titles trigger me (and probably others too) to click it. It's a call to action and makes you curious. I also noticed, at least for me personally, it bothers me a bit. Why? Because it kind of seems to be a 'command' to do something. And if you don't, you're not doing the best you can. Or you're not following 'the norm' (at least what is considered to be the norm according to the writer of the article).

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this feeling, but if not, my advise for everyone would be: try to put things a bit more in perspective for yourself a bit.

Putting things in perspective

What helps for me is rephrasing it like for example "This writer thinks that these are the 10 things you should know...". This makes it less of a "statement" and helps myself decide if I actually want to read it or not. In the end, it's only the writer's opinion and not the truth.

As I know the developer community, probably everyone has some awesome things they want to learn. And that's already great! Good is good enough. Does the article fit within your current priority/goal? Then it can be useful. If not? No worries, titles are not alive and can't judge you. And even if they did, you have the perfect motivation to not read on a subject and focus on what is important for YOU.

Hope this pep talk-ish article helps the ones that need it. You're doing an amazing job ✨!

Comments

[Saloni Goyal]

We sometimes get stuck on doing X to achieve Y results. That’s a finite mindset. The rules are clear, the objectives defined.

An infinite mindset acknowledges the open-endedness that exists in much of life. The real challenge isn’t winning the game, it’s to continue playing.

[Daniil Baturin]

Still waiting for these articles:

• 10 ways to stop writing clickbait'y titles
• One weird trick to stop pretending to sound like an authority when you are not
• I decided to write informative titles. Guess what happened next?

[𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️]

it bothers me a bit.

Same, although in my case it's less that it bothers me and more of a Who the fuck are you to tell me what I "must" do? reaction.

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EDIT: A few alternative ways one could express this:

• X things you can do to achieve Y
• X steps that have helped people to get to Y
• If you want Y, you should totally consider these X tips
• X secret tips to achieve Y