What’s a joke? It’s an element of surprise. You can make it brutal, a surprise like a shock, or something silly, and you can make it smart; with an insight, you get an idea, and something pops up in your mind. But, no matter how elevated it is, a joke has an element of surprise, by definition.

Now, do people like this kind of surprise? It’s not that clear!

My father likes to use a few jokes and constantly repeat them.

He also likes, at times, to nag people – to push them, to be a bit annoying, to insist.

The first time you see a joke – it might be funny.

The second time – it becomes a bit annoying.

If you have a relationship with someone and they don’t mind if they annoy you, the jokes can be even more annoying.

As a first conclusion of this text – if you repeat jokes a lot and tend not to mind if you annoy people, the jokes might become annoying.

Making fun of a person generally involves at least three persons – the person making the joke, the person who is being mocked, and the audience (one or more people). But in a one-to-one conversation, there are just two parties. There’s no one to laugh at the joke. The laughing party is missing from the situation. The result? There’s one bully and a victim, no one else.

A repeated joke is like an ad with the surprise element (the first time), but it annoys you. If you see the same ad five times, it might annoy you further.

There is a magazine called Dilema in Romania. They try to be funny. Instead of writing „Talk Show”, they say „Tâlc Show”. Instead of writing „Cu ochii-n 4”, they write „Cu ochii-n 3,14”. Instead of „Pe de altă parte”, they say „Pe de altă carte”. „Adio și n-am cuvinte” becomes „Audio și n-am cuvinte”. „Libertatea de expresie” => „Libertatea de impresie”. You get the picture.

The thing is, if you come to the website one time, it might be funny; it will make you think. If, on the other hand, like I do, read the magazine about once a week for years, the joke becomes annoying.

What’s a positive example? Google – They use doodles, which is a funny way to show their logo. But:

• It’s only once per month or so for a specific version of a search engine (so, on Google.ro, they have one or two per month; on Google.com, one or two per month, something like that).
• They work hard to make things nice, putting their heart and soul into it.
• Very importantly, they change things every time. Even for national holidays, they try to make something different each time, so there’s always an element of surprise.

If you change your logo or do something atypical a few times, it’s fine. However, if you do the same thing year after year, it cannot be enjoyable. For example, the Christmas logo has the same new graphic each year. Or on April 1^st, they make the same kind of jokes.

You can see my logic in action with the Simpsons intro—they change it considerably each time; you know there’s an effort, and you always want to see what they came up with this time.

If a TV series has the same old intro each time, you’ll get bored and want to skip it.

In conclusion, If you want to annoy people, repeat your jokes and be the same with your „surprises” each time. If you want to delight your audience, make new jokes each time and vary things as much as you can.

If you have a website, don’t write „About Us” in funny ways „Who are we?”, „What do we do?”, „What’s our story?”, „Find out details on us”. Write as simply and as clearly as you can „About Us.” Don’t be creative when people want efficiency – get to the point, and don’t make people wonder, „What does the website mean by «What’s our story»?”. Always write „Contact” or „Contact Us”, instead of „Get in touch”, „Let’s be friends”, „Drop us a message”, or other creative things.

Don’t be creative with the menus.

I agree. This is harder to do than to say. I also often repeat jokes. But I’m working on it and quite aware of this.

Citește mai departe

Sometimes, I see the following things on WhatsApp conversations:

„Does anyone in here …” and they present a situation like „attend classes at …” or „have the phone number of …”?

Of course, the people present nothing else—who are they, and why do they need the information? This is automatically presumed to be irrelevant.

„Are you breathing?”. If you say „Yes,” then the question might follow, likely, again, incomplete.

The solution would be simple – put a detailed question, mention the reasons for which you require the information, and don’t forget to introduce yourself.

There’s another solution, this time on my part – I can ignore the message, which was so poorly formatted.

Some other types of questions: „Are you using Vodafone?” State the full question! Of course, using Vodafone is not enough; it’s just bait for long discussions.

Suddenly, if I want to help, I must answer silly questions and start asking myself.

I’m sorry. You ask silly questions. You should ask them to people who like them. I prefer to give to-the-point answers to to-the-point questions.

If by wanting to help you, I’m forced to start a conversation and grab your answers using pliers; I don’t want to help you.

You need help, and you should bring the details; don’t put your needs on me.

I’m happy to help, but you should do your best to minimize my efforts.

Finally, people find solutions to their queries but don’t bother to update the original question with „It’s fine; I found a solution.”

Citește mai departe

If you write very focused, when even the smallest words count, as bloggers like zoso.ro, nwradu.ro, arhiblog.ro do, you’ll likely get readers who read your article attentively. So, very focused writing, words matter => very focused readers.

This is the same for clicking on links – Zoso and NW Radu are constantly linking out. Thus, people click on things. Thus, they might even click on ads.

I tend to write by repeating stuff, which I think is fine, but the drawback is that you can skip parts of the article and still understand the article. Thus, my blog’s readers might do skimming more.

Citește mai departe

When helping others, there are two types of situations:

• Helping some get out of trouble (generally, this can be resolved by financial means, but not all the time);
• Helping some get better.

There’s a lot of focus on the first part and little on the second part.

If someone has lots of success in life but needs some money to do even better, it’s a natural tendency to try to drag them down. „Oh, but he/she will be better than I! That’s not cool!”.

Also, when helping someone poor, there’s always a little thought about the laziness involved. „Have they worked hard to get out of their situation? Should I help this lazy person? Wouldn’t it have been better had they suffered?”

Citește mai departe

See part 1: Free invites – Blog de Olivian Breda.

I go to a lot of events using free invites.

But, in my case, „free” generally involves giving something back, so it’s generally more like a barter.

I also invite some people as a token of goodwill.

But I don’t invite people expecting something in return.

Negative example #1: I used to organize a series of events. For a long time, we had a central, well-organized, cool, good-equipped, and friendly location. After a few years, the area closed. We had to charge a small tax (around 30 lei, something like that, less than €10; I think it was €6-7). Years after the event ended, I met someone who asked me, „At some point, did you hold the event for free?”. I was stunned. After all these years, all that person cared about the event was €7. We made no profit; we barely even covered our costs, even though we also had some sponsors.

Negative example #2: I invited one person to an event and asked that person to write a follow-up message on my blog beforehand. The person recorded the event (I’m not sure if they had permission for that) and told me at the end, „Here’s the video; write whatever you write.” When I told them they should write the article, they didn’t do it.

Negative example #3: I invited a person to an event and asked for a follow-up message. They asked for permission to write negative things, which I accepted. They wrote some things about event organization and logistics. While not of zero value, it had little value to other readers.

Writing a follow-up article helps me remember the information better, creates quality content for my blog, and allows me to network. It’s a win-win-win. Yet, few people write event follow-ups.

I know some event organizers who don’t give free event invitations. I like their policy.

People pay a premium for business class because of a certain kind of company. I like their view.

Citește mai departe