Why some ideas spread and others die
Spreading is a design property, not a quality reward.
3 minute read
Ideas do not travel because they are good. They travel because passing them on does something for the person passing them on.
People share things that make them look informed, look generous, look like they belong to a group, or that give them a way to say something about themselves they were already trying to say. If your idea does none of that, it stays where it is no matter how correct it is.
There is a second requirement. The idea has to survive being retold badly. Most ideas reach their third listener through someone who half remembers them. If it cannot be compressed into one sentence without losing its point, it will not make that trip.
A third: it needs somewhere to go. An idea with no obvious next action dissipates. Something to sign up for, attend, buy, or join gives the energy a destination.
So the work of making something spread happens before it is released. Give people a reason to be the one who tells someone. Make it compressible. Put something at the end of it.
Everything after that is distribution, and distribution amplifies whatever is already there. It does not create it.
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