Copywriters Podcast

I’ve been reading a book called “Hackers and Painters” by Silicon Valley philosopher Paul Graham, who’s also a painter. He has a PhD from Harvard in computer science, and co-founded a startup that sold to Yahoo for about $50 million. Plus, plenty more accomplishments. Smmmmart guy. In the book, he makes a comment that really sounds simple-minded when you first hear it. But when you think about it for a little while, you realize it’s profound: “Nearly all great paintings are of people, because people are what people are interested in.” After all, the Mona Lisa wasn’t a painting of a BUILDING. Well, you might ask, what about copy? I would argue the same thing applies. The copy that sells the best is mostly about people. An obvious example is the Wall Street Journal sales letter, which has been tracked to sell more than $2 billion in newspaper subscriptions. No other copy has ever been tracked to come anywhere close. It starts out: On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men gradu