“Brown and white birdhouse hanging from tree” by Jelle Harmen van Mourik on Unsplash

When they get 4.3k claps, again, on that new listacle they wrote

That one time when a book went viral in ancient China

In Jin Dynasty (266–420 AD), a man giddly brought the latest viral sensation back for his politician/militant boss Xie An.

“You gotta read this, man, every publisher is copying this book because it sells so well,” said the man, “Even the price of paper is going up because of this book!”

“Oh, really. Let me take a look,” Xie An jumped right in.

Not long later, Xie An’s face turned into something like this:

Translation: What the fuck am I reading??

“What’s wrong boss?”

“The content is repetitive, does not offer any new insight…” muttered Xie An, “everyone is writing these kind of essays!” He exclaimed. “This is… trash!” he said, tearing the book apart.

“Writing these kind of bullshit essays is like building a house right under a house — what’s the point?!” He said before getting back to work.

Lessons:

1. Popular doesn’t mean good.
2. When you are writing (especially online), look at what other people…