Provoke in the title, orient in the subtitle

A title can violate a reader's expectation to spark curiosity, but the piece still owes them a subtitle that names the value.

Tended July 2026 · 1 min read

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A writer in our community, Vincenzo, opened an essay with a provocation: a title — "The Sweet Sound of LinkedIn Notifications" — that praised the one sound many readers can't stand. In our workshop discussion of the piece, we read the move as a deliberate use of the curiosity gap — the mind reaches for an answer the moment it notices one is missing.

Why a violation pulls the click

A title works on curiosity when it collides with what the reader already believes. "The Sweet Sound of LinkedIn Notifications" lands as an affront to anyone who finds the platform lame, and that affront is the hook — if I saw that essay, I'd think: what are you talking about? I hate LinkedIn. The pull traces to the psychology of curiosity, where a mismatch between expectation and claim opens a gap the reader wants closed.

The title also sorts the audience. The reader who clicks already agrees LinkedIn is lame — that is why they clicked — so the essay wastes its opening if it spends pages proving the platform is unpleasant.

Who clicked on this? Who is the title for? It was for a LinkedIn skeptic.

The subtitle pays the value back

A provocation raises a question; it does not answer one. The fix we settled on was a subtitle that names what the reader gets. I floated "How LinkedIn set a freelancer free" — a line that hands the skeptic a promise, freedom, and points the right reader in. A subheadline that hints at the piece's value draws in the right reader with the right expectations.

Try it

Build the title on a collision: pair a thing your reader dislikes with a claim that seems impossible about it.
Don't re-argue what the title already assumes; the reader who clicked already agrees.
Add a subtitle that names the payoff in the reader's terms, so curiosity resolves into a promise.
Ask who clicks this exact title, and write to that person; this is the reader-first move behind the writer's draft vs. the reader's draft.

Drawn from

The curiosity gap — Curiosity, Information Gaps, and the Utility of Knowledge (Golman & Loewenstein)

In this collection

Collection overview Provoke in the title, orient in the subtitle The writer's draft vs. the reader's draft Point the passion outward Sell the problem, not the topic A problem is a condition and a cost Know your reader, not just your audience Write for the reader's working memory Learn your reader's code words Writing is a two-player game You're in the persuasion business Make a promise the wrong reader can refuse Pick a villain Change the reader, don't express yourself Signal value with the language of instability Use the error method, not the gap method Claim, evidence, warrant Beat readers to their objections Concede before you dismantle