You know everything there is to know about how Donald Trump thinks and acts. You want your government to be transparent? You got it. His every utterance get blanket coverage on cable from MSNBC to Fox News, and everything between. We have Politico, Talking Points Memo, and Breitbart dissecting his burps and asides, magnified by…
Fans in the stands at Fenway Park in Boston unveiled a banner at yesterday’s baseball game. Here’s a picture. A news story about the incident Here’s a story about it: “Alt-right” activists unveil banner at Fenway September 13, 2017 In the middle of the fourth inning of the Red Sox-Athletics game on Wednesday night, a…
Robert Scoble had predicted the next iPhone would be focused on augmented reality (AR) and transparent, like a piece of glass. It wasn’t. But his description of why he was wrong is revealing, both about Scoble and about the future of both AR and iPhones. I’m a little deeper into this story than most people reading…
Somebody like Gary Vaynerchuk succeeds. They look back. They tell you how they did it and how you should do the same. This corrupt reasoning pervades all motivational writing, and nobody even notices. Starting now, I will. The energetic and provocative Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a Medium piece in June called “The Day I Decided to…
Martin Merzer spent over 40 years reporting from places like Jerusalem, Iraq, and Afghanistan — and hurricanes in Miami. As I read the note he shared with reporters preparing to report on hurricanes, I was struck by how relevant it is for anyone writing in a crisis — and these days, it seems we’re always…
Thieves “potentially” made off with 143 million consumer records from credit reporting company Equifax. This is the worst data breach ever. The Equifax response is full of vague cover-your-ass statements at the exact moment when consumers most need accurate information. This is not the largest data breach ever — Yahoo lost data on 1 billion…
Twenty years as an analyst warped my sense of time. Instead of living in the moment — I foraged, looking back, around, and forward for evidence and opportunity. To the analyst or futurist . . . The past is research fodder The analyst is constantly gathering fuel for arguments. The best fuel is lying around…
I’ve been collaborating with some very smart people lately — helping them write long pieces that explain the power of their ideas. Many of them are not great writers, which is why they have asked for my help. The best part about collaboration is the exhilaration of learning new ideas, contributing to them, building evidence…
Finally, I found a writing teacher in higher education whose philosophy about teaching writing matches mine. But we still need to align how we teach writing with how people actually use it at work. John Warner teachers writing at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. In his piece “We Know How To Teach Writing”…