It’s Easy to Be Outstanding
Ramit Sethi calls it the “Craigslist Penis Effect”. Put in just a bit more effort, and you’ll outshine everyone else.
Years ago, I stumbled on Butterick’s Practical Typography, a web version of Matthew Butterick’s eponymous book. I thought the book’s content was brilliant — follow a bunch of rules, and make your documents will look better (read it, it’s a great primer to typography). I remember removing the cell borders in a Microsoft Word table as Butterick advised, and boy, did it look much better.
I felt as if I discovered a big secret. Typography knowledge is widely available, but no one seemed to follow these basic principles. Bad typography was (and still is) the norm. I realized if that were the case, any document that incorporated Butterick’s advice, or simple typography principles, would outshine the rest.
Enter the Craigslist Penis Effect (abbreviated as CPE for the rest of this article). Coined by Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, it refers to the following situation:
… if you’ve ever posted a nice, g-rated “women seeking men” post, you will immediately and inexplicably have 50–80 pictures of men’s penises in your inbox.
The Craigslist Penis Effect describes situations where everyone else is so horrible that, by being even half-decent, you can dominate everyone else and win. These moron men on Craigslist would be better served writing 5 half-decent responses, testing to see which got the best response, and then sending it out instead of a picture of their generally mediocre manhood.
It’s the same with typography. Make lazy choices — using default typefaces, for example — and you’ll blend in with the mediocre masses. But spend a little more effort to be half-decent, and you’ll stand out.
Like Sethi, I’m a big believer in the smart and lazy way — think “minimal effort, maximum reward”. And you can apply this mindset to other areas in life: Sethi highlights topics like negotiation, emails and exercise where it’s easy to stand out.
Best practices, principles and mentors
Let’s take a deeper look at domains where “everyone else is so horrible”. The common thread here seems to be fields with lots of “practitioners”, but no formal instruction. Indeed, the examples in Sethi’s article such as online dating are hardly taught in modern schools, so people muddle their way through. They may not be “horrible”, but they end up being mediocre.
So here’s what you can do:
In a field with many practitioners but little formal instruction (henceforth known as CPE fields), equip yourself with knowledge, especially best practices and principles. Apply said knowledge to outshine others.
Why best practices and principles? Let’s unpack these terms.
Best practices
A great starting point in any field is to copy others, especially those who are successful. Best practices — or what the successful are doing — are labelled “best” for a reason. Although they’re not foolproof, they usually do more good than harm.
However, rules are meant to be broken and you shouldn’t follow best practices blindly. That’s where principles come in.
Principles
Behind every best practice is a principle. Principles are a commander’s intent which guide you when there is no formal instruction, and allow you to understand why best practices are “best”.
Using Sethi’s Craigslist example, a “moron man” could learn opening lines from online dating blogs (best practices) to augment his “5 half-decent” responses. But beyond canned lines, he could synthesize his learning by reading about online communication and dating etiquette (principles). In short: start with best practices, then move on to underlying principles.
A note on mentorship
Although you can teach yourself best practices and principles, having a mentor will accelerate your progress — you’ll avoid making beginner mistakes from someone who has made them before. It’s worth it to get a teacher instead of learning, then unlearning, bad habits.
Not only that, mentors can guide you towards a higher quality of best practices/principles, further increasing your performance. Mentors, teachers and courses are available for almost any field you can imagine.
4 potential fields for leverage
You can leverage the CPE for your own benefit by looking for areas which:
- You engage in often (so it’s worth your effort)
- Have lots of “competitors” — many practitioners — but little formal instruction
Here are 4 of them:
1. Design and typography
Sooner or later, everyone has to design something. The CPE holds true here because most people use standard templates in PowerPoint slides, brochures or resumes. Go beyond the low-hanging fruit by following:
Best practices
- Use Google Fonts to differentiate your website and documents from those using system fonts
- Access Canva for a more design templates — they’re better-designed than the default Office templates
- As mentioned above, Butterick’s is a great resource. Follow his suggestions on cleaning up your document
Principles
- Learn how to mix typefaces
- Clean Up Your Mess — a well-explained design primer with examples.
- CRAP (Contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity) — this is a useful set of design principles that you can apply anywhere.
- Edward Tufte — for the advanced, learn about data visualization through his books. The way you communicate your data can bias your audience.
2. Shortcuts and productivity
Everyone has tasks to do. But most charge head-on without considering more efficient methods. Before moving starting on your next assignment, try these productivity frameworks:
Best practices
- Restrict yourself: Dan Ariely draws a parallel between Ulysses tying himself to his ship’s mast and “making it impossible to take action when temptation appeared”. Similarly, use “Ulysses contracts” or the Freedom app to block distractions.
- Time management: Toggl’s a great app that tracks your time, so you can plan better. Also use multiple instances of the Pomodoro method to take down large tasks.
- If a task requires less than 2 minutes to do, do it now — a life-changing rule if there ever was one.
- Prioritize with the Eisenhower matrix. Extreme Ownership encourages you to “prioritize and execute” in the face of overwhelm. This matrix is a good visual aid.
- For computer-based workers, learn all the features in frequently-used programs. Most people don’t delve beyond the surface of the app and miss out on time-saving shortcuts. Bite the bullet and learn — you only have to do it once!
- Consider text expansion for recurring typing tasks.
Principles
- Getting Things Done (GTD) — lots of gems in this framework which deserves a whole article by itself. Essentially, devise a “capture system” to keep track of tasks. Doing so lessens the cognitive load on your brain, so you have more mental resources for other things.
- Rory Vaden’s talk on multiplying time introduces a funnel-based approach to tackling tasks.
- Although it’s important to prioritize, how do you know what’s important? Find out with the focusing question.
3. Mindfulness, emotional intelligence for focus
Look at any metro, queue, escalator — anything that involves waiting and you’ll people on their phones. The Chinese even came up with a name for them — ditouzhu, or tribe of lowered heads. Smartphones have caused a scarcity of attention, where everyone feels the need to be constantly entertained —and that means opportunity to leverage the CPE.
In a distracted world, the focused will win, and mindfulness is an excellent way of achieving focus. Much has been written on the benefits on mindfulness, but suffice to say, mindfulness is a meta-skill that augments other parts of your life. For example, consciously stepping back from demands on your attention allows you to prioritize better. Mindfulness has also been shown to improve empathy, and thus interpersonal relationships.
Best practices
- Practice meditation. Learning is easy, building the habit to practice is hard.
- Reduce stimulus in your life, thus allowing you to focus.
- Let your brain idle after intense periods of work, so that the subconscious mind can generate creative solutions.
Principles
- Understanding bandwidth tax and limited willpower will help you to allocate mental resources
4. Written online communication
A friend once told me how gratified he was when his superior — a veritable master of the universe — replied him with “thanks!” rather than “thanks.”. The exclamation mark made my friend feel appreciated — contrast this with a curt full stop. Indeed, online communication is full of judgements because there aren’t other social cues to use.
Most people aren’t aware that online impressions are thus inflated, whether in online dating or corporate emails, and come across as rude or insensitive. Therefore, online communication is another CPE domain where it’s easy to outshine others:
Best practices
- Follow the basics of online/email etiquette, such as being culturally sensitive and not spamming others.
- Express yourself with emojis, punctuation and greetings. In a world of terse, one-word emails, simple pleasantries get you noticed. Emojis are increasingly accepted in the corporate world as well.
- Learn to write better. It’s surprising how many people don’t hone their writing even though they write every day. I’d recommend Writing Tools to start. For longer-form content, use proofreading tools like ProWritingAid.
- Follow through with promises you make in writing. Today, ghosting, last-minute cancellations and flimsy promises are common in online communication. Being reliable is courteous and sets you apart.
Principles
- Be aware about the intricacies of online communication, such as impression management and self-presentation. Know that even your punctuation can be judged.
- Incorporate more empathy in your writing. Think: “How can I make things easier for the other person? How can I make it easier for the person to comprehend?” Adopting this mindset sets you on the path to good online etiquette, by manifesting in behaviours like summarizing complex issues for others, attaching the right files, and being clear on time zones.
Bonus: Mobile photography
Mobile photography’s a ripe CPE field: everyone’s a photographer today with high-quality smartphone cameras, but most smartphone photos are not well-taken. As a photographer, here’s my take on improving your shots with best practices and principles — no new gear required.
Best Practices
- Follow the rule of thirds. There are exceptions, but this rule applies in common photography situations.
- Get up close. Robert Capa once said “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”.
- Isolate your subject. If you’re using a phone camera which can’t blur the background well, look for a plain background instead.
- When a moment is unfolding, take as many frames as you can, then choose the best one after. You’ll have a better chance of capturing choice moments.
Principles
- Good photos portray what people can’t see regularly. “Get up close” addresses this because people don’t usually look at subjects up close.
- Learn about visual mass and focal points. Again, getting up close likely provides both, and isolates the subject.
- Learn about Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment. There’s a peak movement in every interaction, so try to capture that.
Minimal effort, maximum reward
This article is made up of specific suggestions for CPE fields, but the main lesson is to adopt a “minimal effort for maximum reward” approach. Best practices and principles can be learned easily, especially in online classes. But if no one else is doing it, there’s tremendous potential in doing basic research to set yourself apart.
Think about areas where you can leverage the CPE, gain knowledge/mentorship, and apply yourself. After all, dick pics (or its equivalent in your domain) never did anyone good.
Are there other domains where you can take advantage of the CPE? Let me know.
