Over 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes reportedly proclaimed “Eureka! Eureka!” after he had stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose, whereupon he understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged in the bath.
Eureka means, “I have found (it).”
The way I define it, a “eureka” moment is a moment when you become aware of something that’s quite obvious, yet for different reasons has eluded you for a long time. A piece of information that’s been at the edge of your mind’s peripheral vision.
Why should we write about such moments?
Because, contrary to popular belief, people don’t want to read about what they don’t know. There’s a lot of mental discomfort that comes with reading about topics you have no understanding of, which is why most people don’t want to read articles about those topics.
At the same time, people don’t want to read about what they already know.
So, what do people love to read?
What they know they don’t know. About the elusive obvious fact, about the aspects that they were almost aware of, the so-called eureka moments.
So, if you are a non-fiction writer, you should certainly learn to master the MAYA framework.
