Social media is full of experts. They all have opinions. But should you hire them for their expertise, and should you trust them to help you make decisions? The 2×2 shown here is a good way to think about them and their strengths and weaknesses. In the descriptions below, I refer to their “space”: the…
I’m digging into the data we’ve collected so far in our survey about AI and the Writing Profession, and I thought you might be interested in how survey analysis professionals like me work to generate insights from such data. (The survey is still open until September 4, if you’d like to add your own perspective.)…
When presented with a supposed fact, what is your approach? The partisan mindset: If it confirms my prejudices, I accept it and immediately share it. The contrarian mindset: If it seems wrong, I find reasons to reject it and most likely, denigrate whomever shared it. Neither of these mindsets improves human knowledge. The analytical mindset…
Newsletter 102. New truths from survey data, how AI twists writers’ minds, and Scholastic’s implosion, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Lies, damn lies, and statistics It’s pretty damn easy to create statistics these days. I know what I’m talking about. In 1996, I helped create and launch Technographics, Forrester’s survey…
You’re an author who wants to change the world. Just like every other author. Writing a book is a big effort. You think it’s worth it because you want to change the world. And I’m sure you’re right. Whatever the world is that you want to change — the world of partisan politics, the world…
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…
I don’t tell Black people how to be Black people. I don’t tell gay people how to be gay. I don’t tell Muslims what they should care about, or Catholics, or Orthodox Jews. I don’t tell Canadians how to be Canadian. I don’t tell working class people how they should live their lives. I don’t…
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, 1984 Have you ever made a mistake? (I have made many.) Have you said something publicly that was wrong? (I sure did.) Did you have to admit that you were wrong? (I…
I strongly recommend that you take a look at Eric Schwartzman’s new article in Fast Company, “Bot farms invade social media to hijack popular sentiment.” Schwartzman’s deeply researched piece explains how malign actors are using banks of actual mobile phones, spoofed to appear as actual independent people, to manipulate sentiment about everything from actions in…