Newsletter 95. How AI could extend the productive careers of millions. Plus recommended fake books to read, nonfiction writing tips from fiction, three people to follow and three books to read. AI: Aging intelligence I’ve gotten pretty used to the way my brain works. Based on decades of historical evidence it’s quick, retains almost everything,…
Unless you carefully plan your rewrites, you risk wasting lots of effort — and worse, wasting your ability to bring a fresh and creative mind to all parts of your nonfiction book project. The naive approach to the book is to write all the chapters in order. This is easy to conceive, but it creates…
As a ghostwriter and editor, I collaborate with authors all the time. Sometimes it’s stressful. But when it works, it’s glorious. Authors have ideas. The best authors have great ideas. It is not my place to criticize those ideas, in fact, those ideas are often why I’ve decided to collaborate with those authors in the…
According to the Boston Globe, the owners of the Connecticut Sun WNBA team are exploring options for selling the team. I’m not that surprised; Uncasville in southern Connecticut is an out-of-the-way place to put a team, and their facility is not quite up to the level of the growing professionalism and booming audiences of today’s…
No one wants unsolicited advice. Here’s what that means. No matter how brilliant you are and how perfectly suited your knowledge is to someone’s situation, your unsolicited advice will not help them. They will not listen. And they will resent you. What that looks like About weight loss. This is solicited advice: Your friend or…
Newsletter 94. Never trust a coach who wants credit for your hard work. Plus training on copyrighted content is not fair use, standing out from 2.6 million books, three people to follow and three books to read. Coaches don’t take credit About a week ago my lower back went out. What that meant was that…
If you’re a fan of Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, Michael Pollan, Isaac Asimov, or David Sedaris, should you copy them? Should you try to write like them? No. You are you. But you should copy their best practices. How to learn from successful authors If you like what you’re reading, take a moment to examine…
How do people find answers to questions? For decades, the standard paradigm for decision-making revolved around web sites, links, search (and SEO), content marketing, and social sharing. Whether the question was “How can prepare for a job interview” or “What’s the right organizational strategy for a transnational company?” the answer started with a web search….
Today, a little sports math. The current reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics, owner of a dominant 61-21 record in the regular season, are in a second-round playoff series against the 51-31 New York Knicks. The Celtics were heavily favored to win this series, in part because they won four decisive games against the Knicks during…