All day long we read on our various screens. This has vastly increased the demand for content, which comes to us through many channels. But those who create it have forgotten what good writing is. Think back to the world of 1980. The average consumer or businessperson at that time had no email, and there was no Internet. What…
Content from an established media site is credible, right? Not when it’s contributed content. Media sites need content; people need to promote their ideas — the web makes it easy to connect them. The only thing lost is editorial judgment. Unlike the native advertising I discussed yesterday, contributed articles are unpaid, unlabelled self-promotion. The person placing the…
You just got an email. It might be from HR, or your boss, or the head of some other department. And you’re scratching your head and saying “Is this real? Does someone actually think this makes sense?” Don’t just cringe. Don’t just lean over and whine to the guy in the next cube. Don’t write…
If you like sausages, don’t ask how they’re made. But I’m happy to explain how waffles are made, including this piece about CIOs from the Wall Street Journal, titled “CIOs Redefining Role to Fuel Integration, Innovation.” VMware, the technology company, wants to impress CIOs. CIOs read articles in the Wall Street Journal‘s “CIO Journal” section. But…
Since there’s so little actual campaign news, we now get meta-analysis of trivia. Meta-trivia tastes flat, has zero calories and no nutrients, and leaves a sour aftertaste. Flavors of campaign news, non-news, and meta-news: Actual campaign news. Positions that might influence your vote. For example, Hillary Clinton’s position on the Iran negotiations. Extremely rare at…
Liars lie. Bullshitters prattle on heedless of whether or not they lie. That’s what I learned from the only philosophical treatise ever published on bullshit. In 1986, the philosopher Harry G Frankfurt wrote an essay titled “On Bullshit.” In 2005 he published it as a very small book. On Bullshit, Princeton University Press edition, became a New…
by Josh Bernoff Once there was a man named Ray who was the CEO of a company that made helicopters. In his youth he had been an avid pilot. Soon after, he started the company with a few friends. Over time, Ray’s Helicopter, as the company was known, grew rapidly to command an impressive share of the…
Hiring is hard enough. If your job description says “we’re full of bullshit,” you’ll attract bullshitters and repel genuine human beings. Here’s the gist of my advice: write shorter and speak directly to applicants. If you want to see how not to do that, check out a job description Johnson & Johnson has posted (hat-tip to the brilliant…
For 20 years, I did the same thing, mostly. I was a technology analyst at Forrester Research from 1995 until last month. If you do one thing for a long time, you should learn from it. My job at Forrester molded my ways of thinking more than anything else I’ve done (save becoming a parent). Perhaps…