A hook is fine to motivate the science, but you've got to be careful with that. I've put down many science books from scientists whose work I really like - most recently Nowak Super Cooperators - because it is all 'human interest' and no science. I don't need to hear about what the author had for breakfast on the day that he went to visit a collaborator. If I want to read about breakfast, I'll read Proust. When I find myself skimming through it looking for science, that's when I put the book down.
Fascinating to see "Malcolms" given a name! I'd sort of figured this out organically from my newsletter. Most of my posts now start with some sort of anecdote, often only tangentially related to the main argument I want to make. And I always make sure I've got a grabby opening line. And I absolutely don't think there's anything wrong with writing this way - as you're getting more eyeballs on what you're ultimately trying to say. My view now is basically unless I can see the headline/hook I won't bother writing the piece, as no one will read it.
Fascinating! I also went viral this weekend (though on a couple of orders of magnitude lower scale than you, but still large for me). The oddity was that in my case it was a post I'd first written last July, with just a few hundred views, but a reshare last weekend suddenly went viral, with over half a million views on X and well over 10,000 of the piece itself. It's a weird feeling.
It feels there is an element of both quality and serendipity - I'm sure in your case more of the first!
Ohhh, I didn’t know they were called ‘Malcolms’- that’s brilliant. I first noticed a version of this form decades ago with Sunday broadsheet ‘big political story of the week’ pieces - they always opened with something that plopped you right into the context in a way that initially felt a bit jarring (‘When Sir Boseley Snoddington made his way into the Chancellor’s office on Tuesday morning, he didn’t know he was about to be briefed on a policy that would astonish the UK’s financial sector and cause a disastrous run on the pound.’) It’s fascinating how these forms become popularised/legible, then common, then a bit tired, and then out of fashion altogether (eventually). (I’m not criticising - I do it myself all the time.) Congrats on virality!
A hook is fine to motivate the science, but you've got to be careful with that. I've put down many science books from scientists whose work I really like - most recently Nowak Super Cooperators - because it is all 'human interest' and no science. I don't need to hear about what the author had for breakfast on the day that he went to visit a collaborator. If I want to read about breakfast, I'll read Proust. When I find myself skimming through it looking for science, that's when I put the book down.
Fascinating to see "Malcolms" given a name! I'd sort of figured this out organically from my newsletter. Most of my posts now start with some sort of anecdote, often only tangentially related to the main argument I want to make. And I always make sure I've got a grabby opening line. And I absolutely don't think there's anything wrong with writing this way - as you're getting more eyeballs on what you're ultimately trying to say. My view now is basically unless I can see the headline/hook I won't bother writing the piece, as no one will read it.
Fascinating! I also went viral this weekend (though on a couple of orders of magnitude lower scale than you, but still large for me). The oddity was that in my case it was a post I'd first written last July, with just a few hundred views, but a reshare last weekend suddenly went viral, with over half a million views on X and well over 10,000 of the piece itself. It's a weird feeling.
It feels there is an element of both quality and serendipity - I'm sure in your case more of the first!
Ohhh, I didn’t know they were called ‘Malcolms’- that’s brilliant. I first noticed a version of this form decades ago with Sunday broadsheet ‘big political story of the week’ pieces - they always opened with something that plopped you right into the context in a way that initially felt a bit jarring (‘When Sir Boseley Snoddington made his way into the Chancellor’s office on Tuesday morning, he didn’t know he was about to be briefed on a policy that would astonish the UK’s financial sector and cause a disastrous run on the pound.’) It’s fascinating how these forms become popularised/legible, then common, then a bit tired, and then out of fashion altogether (eventually). (I’m not criticising - I do it myself all the time.) Congrats on virality!