Breaking rules is necessary, because if you follow all the rules to the letter, you’ll never accomplish anything new and original. Ironically, though, every piece of advice on the Internet — including my book and my blog — is setting up new rules (“Avoid the passive voice! Build your personal brand! Floss!). So should you break the…
The stock market has already priced in anything you read in The Wall Street Journal about stocks. So they fill space with an elaborate passel of theories that’s obscure enough that you might think the market doesn’t understand it yet. That’s fine, so long as you realize it’s for entertainment purposes only. Markets reporters at a paper…
Tuesday, November 8, 2016, NEW YORK, 11:15 PM EST. Thank you. Thank you all. We showed America something, didn’t we? Didn’t we? Let’s acknowledge the hard work of our volunteers and campaign staff. And of Ivanka, and Eric, and Donald Jr. and Melania. And Mike Pence! Let’s hear it for those guys. Look. I set out in…
Friday’s post about the Donald Trump statues got quite a reaction. Surprisingly, it restored my faith in the Internet as a place for discourse. My objective was simple: get people to think twice about whether we’re ready to accept public, naked, exaggerated depictions of our political candidates as part of the dialogue. And I think…
American swimmer Ryan Lochte has apologized for his behavior during an altercation in Rio de Janeiro. A good apology cites specifics and is direct about the people who were harmed. His isn’t. Lochte and his three teammates originally claimed they were robbed at gunpoint by Brazilians posing as police officers. Surveillance video reveals a different story: they stopped…
INDECLINE, an anarchist collective, erected fat, naked statues of Donald Trump with shriveled genitalia in five American cities yesterday. What a hoot! If you had a good laugh with this, I’m here to ruin your fun. Think along with me here for a second. Why is it reprehensible for Trump to make fun of a disabled reporter,…
If you’re an executive or senior manager, why trouble your people about clear writing? Does it really make a difference to how your organization runs? Dramatically. It will change the tenor of how you work. Frankly, “Writing Without Bullshit” is a departure for me. After 20 years as an analyst, I’m used to giving strategy advice to…
When I work with clients, we sometimes trade contracts written in legalese. Both sides have a pretty good idea what we want. So why not just say it? Just for reference, here’s what I do: I help authors with book ideas. I help authors write book proposals. I run clear writing workshops for companies. I…
Blab, a livestreaming startup with 3.9 million users, just shut down abruptly. Founder Shaan Puri’s message to the world is crystal clear. Unfortunately, he also treats his users like any other resource — they were useful for a while, but now he’s discarding them like an obsolete iPhone. Blab had a good run. In addition to its…