How hard & how important is it to be interesting on a page?

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Incredibly hard and incredibly important. 

By being interesting on a page, you create a context that helps others do some of the most important things on Earth: think, act, laugh, dream, and love, to name a few. That’s why, I feel, being interesting on a page is the best vehicle of progress in our civilization. And the basis of all its wealth.

Not convinced? Let me show you. Let’s take one of the tiniest examples of what being interesting on a page looks like in action. Let’s look at a good joke and see how it fuelled culture and created wealth. Here is that joke: “The other night, I bought a movie on iTunes that I own on DVD. Just so I wouldn’t have to get out of bed.” — Garry Gulman, comedian

Fun, no? Your life is richer for it, isn’t it? You’re not the only one who’s richer for it. Garry is, too. The above joke, along with a few others, was recently purchased by Netflix. They, then, turned it into a Netflix special to make even more people entertained. And to make even more money.

And all of that started as a collection of words on a page that Garry wrote.

You know what’s funny? Most folks think that being interesting on a page is confined only to mediums such as books, sheets of music, or movies and TV shows.

And that’s where most folks are wrong. Today, being interesting on a page matters in so many other areas in life. For example, those who know how to be interesting on a special, digital kind of page run the Internet. (Maybe even the world?)

I’m talking about folks who write software. Surprised? Software is a form of writing on a page, not some alien thingamajig. And those who are good at it are driving progress, usually enriching both the world and themselves.

Case in point: Mark Zuckerberg. He knows how to be interesting on a page. Mark is so good at it that he even got all of our grandmas hooked on Facebook.

Whether it’s helping people find people, find love, raise funds, or be reunited with their pets after natural disasters (it’s a thing, Google it), Facebook is driving progress in the world. It has enriched it. Mark, too. Which is OK. As the old saying goes, you can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.

The takeaway: Being interesting on a page is incredibly hard and incredibly important. Because writing that’s interesting on a page motivates thinking, feeling, and acting, which are the things that fuel culture. And culture shapes values. And values determine the future. And the future is important, no? :)