People have been making lists for hundreds of years for example:
- On a rock dated at 3200 B.C the oldest set of sequential signs was found by archeologists.
- Singers have made songs out of lists, remember ,“50 ways to leave your lover” by Paul Simon – although he cheated and only told us 5!
- Then there is the list of “my favourite things” from sound of Music. Anyone think of anymore?
- It’s a popular management tool as advocated by Richard Branson.
- The Ten Commandments.
Making lists satisfies us, I cannot imagine a world without lists, it would be chaos, even in the apocalypse I would need lists, where to get food, how to shoot a zombie etc.
Lists are an easy way to educate ourselves or get a point over. Emphasised and sometimes immortalised. I have also found information that suggests lists help calm and center us, encouraging creativity. You will find lists everywhere in your life:
- Menus, not just food but on phones and laptops.
- Library’s.
- Information leaflets.
- Instructions like for Fire escape, First Aid etc.
- Stock Exchanges.
- Accounts.
- Google or any of the other search engines,
- Forbes 400 list,
- Best dressed/worst dressed/Red carpet lists and so on…
It goes on and on; I a sure you can add a few to this one. The internet has open the world to more and lists, from favourite things to the most hated. I fully intend to explore some of these seriously funny lists and list making tendencies in future posts.
Next post we can explore how we make our lists and yes there is more than one way!