Countdown

I think you should start with a countdown. 

Why? 

Everyone loves a countdown. There’s a promise in a countdown. Maybe you know what’s expected to happen, maybe you don’t. But nobody knows for sure what’s actually going to happen. The expectation is only part of what makes a countdown so much fun. You become a part of something when you join a group of people in a countdown. It’s a social event of collective anticipation. It’s a singalong of decreasing numbers. An increase in excitement as the numbers decrease. Whatever you are counting down, something is going to happen when it gets to zero, even if nothing happens. Even nothing happening counts as something happening when you had expected something to happen. It is a wonderland of what-ifs that gets answered at zero - exactly the moment you want it to be answered. What if it doesn’t happen? What’s going to happen then? What if someone important needs the toilet? If a Big Red Button has to be pushed, who’s going to push it? Who decides who to push it? What if the person pushing it has a sneezing fit? What if the button gets stuck? Why are there so many questions about the button? Does the button need to be big and red? What if something goes really, really, really, really wrong? What if nothing happens at all? Who gives out the refunds? Every question is asked without actually being asked from ten to one - it’s all baked into the countdown. Zero swaggers in and answers them all. It’s an exhilarating metaphorical and literal bubble bath of risk and hope and expectation, both for the people who had set the thing up and the people there to witness the thing. There is a glorious simplicity to it. The risk of it not happening makes the happening so much more exciting. And if it does happen, everyone will say the countdown made it even more incredible. Isn’t that why they decided to do the countdown in the first place? 

Should everything start with a countdown? 

Yes, or ended. Or you could put the countdown in the middle somewhere. 

How would you feel about a count-up? Pointless. No one in human history has said they prefer a count-up to a countdown. Everyone knows that eleven follows ten. But no one knows what’s going to happen when the countdown gets to zero. 

That’s a very good point. For the record, I’ve never liked eleven. Prime numbers are weird. 

So what will you do? 

 

I think I will start with a countdown. 

Good idea. 

Thanks.