One of my favorite shows (anime) of all time is an anime called Jujutsu Kaisen.

If you haven’t seen it, then I highly suggest you give it a shot.

For the past 2 weeks, the TikTok algorithm has been pushing all of the fan edits like crazy (let’s not talk about how many spoilers I saw during that time as well).

But what I realized when watching the fan edits was how much depth each character had.

The main character has the main villain living inside of him.

There’s a character called Mahito who’s the complete opposite of the main character.

What drove me to make that realization?

It wasn’t the anime actually. It was the song that was playing during those fan edits (it’s the lyrics that I started the letter with).

The song added so much depth to the show that I wasn’t aware of (it made me watch the entire show again but with a different lens this time).

Now, enough talking about some random anime (I’m a grown man, I don’t watch cartoons as entertainment…).

The world is full of opposites

Ever since humans were a thing we made sense of the words that we use through their opposites.

If you asked a person during the year 200 AD what the word “hot” means, they’ll tell you “It’s the opposite of cold”.

If you wanted a definition of the word “tall” they’ll tell you “It’s the opposite of short.”

light is the opposite of darkness

Stop is the opposite of start

That’s how we understood language and evolved as humans — this was the case until we came and set scientific definitions.

But Hussain, how is this related to writing?

Good point.

In the world of copywriting, there’s something called juxtaposition.

It’s exactly what we were just talking about—using words that mean the opposite to create contrast.

It’s best to explain it if I use an example.

“Stop posting platitudes, start sharing your stories.”

It makes your writing snappier and straight to the point (I also used alliteration to make it sound nice, I talked about it before in An Untold Secret on Making Your Writing Sing.)

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.

I’m here to tell you the secret of making your point stick to people’s heads.

Back to human evolution and history

For some strange reason, we just love seeing contradictions interact with each other.

In WW2 we have Winston Churchill vs Adlof Hitler.

During the Cold War, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt vs Joseph Stalin

In the movie Current Wars, it was Thomas Edison vs Nikola Tesla

Spoiler incoming: JJK spoiler (if you haven’t seen any episodes of the show JJK then skip the next line)

Jujutsu Kaisen we have Yugi Itadori vs Mahito — Goju vs Sukuna (spoiler)

Spoiler over.

Humans love telling stories through contradictions.

• Rich vs Poor.

• Good vs Evil.

• Underdog vs fan favorite.

Using contradictions in your content

This is my favorite way to drive my point home.

Whenever I write a story or a post that I think is “boring” I like to think of a way to create contradictions (a contradiction that helps my message).

The contradiction doesn’t have to be a person (like in history), it can be an idea.

Here’s an example of a post I wrote 2 weeks ago:

You can read through it if you want, but the entire post is one massive contradiction—most people don’t want to spend on marketing because they think they’re above it, but Pepsi still spends millions on marketing.

Next time you’re writing a post and feel like you might be misunderstood ask yourself these 2 questions:

• Can I create an enemy?

• How can I create the feeling of “us vs them”?

• Can I make my point stick to people’s heads using an example?

People focus too much on writing “value” posts and educating their audience—if you only educate your audience you end up risking being a boring creator (then nobody wants to consume your content).

You can either be the boring and forgotten creator (because you never use any contradictions to make your point clear) or you can be the fun and remembered creator (and people can’t help themselves but listen and consume your content).

When people listen to you and remember what you say they associate their success with you (because you told them to do something that paid off in the end).

With that ladies and gentlemen, that’s all for this week.

Thank you for reading.

It’s been your host for the evening,

Hussain <3