I don’t like lists.
Written lists.
Lists written out to try and impart knowledge and information to the reader.
I do like being able to dip in to things, in an exploratory, unconnected fashion, Wikipedia for instance. But lists, especially in modern SEO writing for the web, have turned in to some bastardized version of useful information. I automatically hate you and your entire family lineage if you have a barely related animated GIF for each bullet point.
My usual train of thought is “a list that isn’t a list”, e.g. https://justinlloyd.li/blog/3d-printer-purchase/ for a 3D printer purchase or my three year long train of thought on prime number research at https://justinlloyd.li/blog/prime-number/. This list that isn’t a list train of thought automatically makes me better than you and I will also silently judge you at the next cocktail party we find ourselves at. There may even be quiet, barely audible seething involved.
On a side note, when I am writing a lengthy article, I usually assemble a list of bullet points first, the outline, and then convert the bullet points into prose, and then re-order the prose, then edit the prose so that it flows. Hundreds of published articles. There isn’t a modern software development trade or software industry magazine I haven’t gotten a published article in to, in some form. And my article always starts as an outline of the subject I wish to talk about.
A list.
One brief thought per line.
Typed up in OneNote with any kind of spell check switched off, or a basic text editor such as Sublime, with no formatting or styling or care for grammar or punctuation or spelling. No annoying squiggly red lines to distract me from my train of thought. Short cut keys to move things around.
But I think lists, as a published medium, are a terrible, terrible travesty of the modern web, because they are so abused.
And bullet pointed lists in a presentation, I consider those kinds of things to be used by people who don’t understand the subject, to teach people even less knowledgable about the subject, everything that they know. Which ain’t much. Again, silent judging at cocktail parties that because I am better than you.