Don't Optimize Content for Midwits
Write for beginners and experts, ignore the exception-hunters in the middle
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 64%
Adam Lane Smith and Chris Williamson describe an audience-selection heuristic for short-form writing. Any tweet trades specificity for brevity, and generalizations are what make it land. Three audience tiers exist: beginners, experts, and midwits in the middle who don't invest in understanding and instead hunt for the one exception, demand a fifty-tweet thread of caveats, then refuse to read threads. The rule is not to optimize for them, because if you caveat everything you erode the color and flavor that make content exciting and you end up with one follower, your mom. The mechanism: write the sharp generalization, optionally add a single 'some people are different' line early, and when exception-hunters arrive, simply link them back to that line rather than arguing. The exception proves the rule exists rather than disproving it.
Origin
Adam Lane Smith crystallized this after his harsh-psychology tweet threads drew waves of exception-hunting replies, discussed on Modern Wisdom.
Core principles
- 01Short-form forces you to sacrifice specificity for brevity
- 02Generalizations are a feature, not a bug; the exception proves the rule
- 03Midwits demand every caveat then refuse to read the thread
- 04Caveating everything erodes the color that makes content work
How to run it
- 1
Write the generalization cleanly
State the punchy, generalized claim without hedging every clause, accepting that brevity costs specificity.
Pro tip Pithiness is why short-form spreads; that is the whole point.
- 2
Add one caveat, not fifty
For hot topics, optionally lead the second tweet with a single line like 'some people are different, but the majority...' then continue.
Watch out Do not attempt to enumerate every possible exception; it is impossible and self-defeating.
- 3
Refuse the caveat demand
When midwits demand a full thread of exceptions, decline. They will not read it anyway.
- 4
Redirect, don't argue
Link exception-hunters back to the caveat line they skipped instead of engaging the imaginary argument.
Pro tip Just paste the link with no extra words; it signals they didn't read the thread.
- 5
Aim at the ends, not the middle
Target beginners and advanced readers who want the signal, not the anxious middle looking for you to be wrong.
Pro tip Remember: the exception proves the rule exists, it does not disprove it.
Watch out Optimizing for midwits leaves you with one follower who tells you you're clever.
In the wild
Anticipating backlash on a spicy claim, Adam opens the second tweet of a thread with 'some people are different, but the majority...' When commenters storm in insisting the claim isn't universally true, he simply copies the link to that line and posts it back at them, proving they never read past the first tweet, without wasting a word arguing.
→ Exception-hunters are neutralized instantly and the content keeps its punch.
Common mistakes
Caveating away the color
Hedging every statement with 'on average' and definitions strips out the sharpness that makes short-form content compelling in the first place.
Arguing with exception-hunters
Engaging the 'well, I knew one person who wasn't like that' crowd feeds an imaginary argument they think they can win by naming an outlier.
Is it for you?
Best for
Writers and creators building a platform in short-form who keep getting derailed by 'well, actually' replies.
Not ideal for
Technical or legal contexts where precision genuinely matters more than reach.
From the transcript
“Twitter is too short for specifics. Generalizations have to suffice. Midwits can't abide generalizations... Don't tweet for midwits.”
“The exception proves the rule. The exception proves that the rule exists.”
From the episode
13 More Harsh Psychology Truths - Adam Lane Smith - #404
Adam Lane Smith