The Alphabetical Trap
Why Your Phone Book is a Graveyard
Every community leader has a "List A"—a mess of contacts starting with the letter A. Alan the VC, Alan the Plumber, Ayanda the CEO, Ayanda the Stranger.
I have 2,400 contacts on my phone. I have 14 "Davids." I have 6 "Sarahs." And I have a "List A" that is a complete mess of VCs, plumbers, old school friends, and business leads—all mixed together simply because their names share the same first letter.
This is The Alphabetical Trap.
We currently rely on tools that organize people by Spelling (Entropy), but we live lives organized by Context (Topology).
When you try to build a high-value network on WhatsApp, this trap kills you. You add "Ayanda" to the group. But which Ayanda? To the software, she is just a string of text. To the community, she could be a Mentor, an Investor, or a Lead.
Because the technology failed to Disambiguate her, that value is lost. "Ayanda" becomes just another unknown number in a noisy feed.
True community management isn't about hoarding contacts; it's about building context. It's about moving from a flat list to a 3D network where "Alan" isn't just a name under 'A', but a node in your "Investor" cluster.
The Lesson: Stop managing lists. Start managing topology.
Clean Up Your List
Bro can help you tag and organize your contacts by context, not just spelling.
Organize My Network