Harry Marks Interviews Matt Alexander

When I started writing Need, Fashion, and Matt Alexander I began with the title “Harry Marks Interviews Matt Alexander on Need”. Those curious can look to the post’s URL for confirmation, which still reads as described despite the fact that I changed its title. I set out with such a headline intending to make a short congratulatory post linking to Harry Marks’ article Interview with Matt Alexander of Need; however, ambition got the better of me and I ended up writing something I feel quite proud of as one of my better think pieces in a while. Those original motifs I pushed to the wayside still clamored for attention though, attention that I will grant them in this follow-up piece.

At the onset I began the article that evolved into Need, Fashion, and Matt Alexander as not just a link post, but — more importantly, in my mind — a commentary regarding Harry Marks’ interesting presentation of his interview I found very reminiscent of the best traits print publications had to offer. Namely, in stark contrast to the all-too common laundry list of questions posed and then answered in rapid and brief succession characteristic of interviews posted online, Harry peppered just five throughout his nearly 1700-word article. This great question-to-elaboration ratio did two wonderful things: first, it forced Harry to put a lot of forethought into his queries; with just five available, he was forced to — and did so splendidly — pose only the most pertinent and interesting questions. Equally important, this also allowed Matt Alexander to expound upon his answers in enough detail that I seldom wished for more information. Combined these two aspects lent themselves to a much more fulfilling interview than I see most internet publications squeeze out these days.

As much as I may wish it were so, I did not finish Interview with Matt Alexander of Need and sit back to reflect upon Harry’s lack of incessant interrogation and an absence of disappointingly brief quips on Matt’s part. Rather, I scrolled back through the article looking at Harry’s unique presentation of that content. Complete with well-placed and relevant section headers that served the dual purpose of presenting Harry’s questions and defining the following paragraphs’ topic interspersed with strategically placed germane and interesting excerpts, I thoroughly enjoyed Harry’s take on the tried and true interview model.