Around 100 BCE, the Roman poet Juvenal decried how the people and their public servants had been distracted from their duties by the promise of “bread and circuses.” the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself…
I get about ten recruiting offers a week on LinkedIn for “opportunities” that I’m perfectly suited for. These offers all have the following things in common: I’m pretty sure these are opening gambits in a typical recruiting scam. The next step is always for them to ask you to share a phone number or WhatsApp…
Newsletter 171. An appreciation of the flawed but still essential social platform, LinkedIn. Plus, all the ways scammers use AI to target authors, Anthropic’s gravity-defying IPO, book bans set a record, three people to follow, and three books to read. The value of social media I’ve been studying social media for almost 20 years now….
The 2026 “AI and the Writing Profession” survey, sponsored by Bernoff.com and Gotham Ghostwriters, will be closed to new respondents in two weeks. Now would be a good time to take it if you haven’t already. So far 1,224 writers and editors have completed it. I’d love to get to 2,000. But you have a…
Do you know what you do? I don’t mean your job. You’ll change your job from time to time. I mean what you do. What you’re good at, what you enjoy, what people will pay you for. My career — and what I do This is what my career looks like (I promise, this is…
President Trump says that from this point forward, artificial intelligence will be known as super intelligence. He has issued an executive order to that end. I have a great deal of experience with attempts to rename technology. As analysts, we often tried to name new things so that people would give us credit for identifying…
It sounds simple. You give your editor a copy of your manuscript; they return the copy with specific edits, questions, and several pages of general comments. The editor’s job is to make suggestions that improve a nonfiction book in every possible way — including clarity of ideas, structure, tone, paragraphs, sentences, and words. As your…
Newsletter 170. The America.gov chatbot persists in telling the truth — but how long will that last? Plus, is teaching writing necessary, Sony ditches CES, three people to follow, three books to read, and a chance to tell us what you really think. Is America.gov a traitor or a patriot? The US Federal government announced…
If you have the financial resources not to need extra money during your retirement, then you have a set of decisions to make. You can stop working and spend time on hobbies, travel, and grandchildren. Or you can keep working. But if you keep working, you should do what makes you happy. My rules for…