Regarding Musk’s new Tesla pay package: How much is your ADHD worth?
Tesla’s board is giving Elon Musk $29 billion (a record compensation for a CEO) to “keep him focused” on Tesla. I have questions:
Treat AI as a slide rule, not a calculator
This is my father’s slide rule. For those unfamiliar with this vintage computing instrument, a slide rule was how scientists, engineers, and technicians did mathematical calculations for much of the twentieth century. You’d carefully align the sliding middle portion with outer frame and read the result off the scales, using the cursor (which was a…
Pretzel logic from Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow
Red Sox Nation is disappointed once again. Major League Baseball’s 2025 trade deadline has passed, and the promising Sox came away with nothing more than a marginal starting pitcher and a redundant relief pitcher. But what we did get was perhaps one of the best examples of pretzel logic ever uttered in sports — which,…
Cheap dreams and domain names
If you have an idea, you can spend hours trying to find the right name for it. GoDaddy and NameCheap have efficient tools for searching domains. And Trademarkia will tell you who’s attempted to trademark the name, and for which services. That’s a lot easier than the real work of figuring out who would pay…
AI and writing; where to pitch what; Trump trashes copyright: Newsletter 30 July 2025
Newsletter 104: Any writing tool that clarifies communication is a boon, AI included. Plus Amazon licenses the Times, Trump declares IP meaningless, three people to follow and three books to read. The future of human writing A furious debate is going on now about AI-generated text. Professional writers and other humans who write feel threatened…
Purge the I4’s from your writing: Inane, Irritating Ironic Instructions
Relax. Take it easy. Be creative. Do your own research. I’ve noticed phrases like these creeping into writing that I edit. I call them I4’s: inane, irritating ironic instructions. They turn how-to advice from specific to infuriating. Stop writing this way, please. What is an I4? An I4 is useless, vague advice included in a…
Goodbye, Tom Lehrer
At some point in the 1950s, the mathematician began to sing. Tom Lehrer, who died this week at the age of 97, started by beavering away on a conventional career as a mathematics professor with a side hobby composing satirical songs and performing them on the piano. He turned the songs into an album and…
Writing a book is an unnatural act
Why is writing a nonfiction book so hard? Because it’s unlike anything else you do — or write — in the rest of your work. There are ways to mitigate all of these weirdnesses. And if you write more than one book, you can begin to get used to them. This is why there are…
Red and green flags for your ghostwriting or editing relationship
After a while, experienced ghostwriters and editors get a sense of which clients are going to be a problem. But it goes both ways: if you hire folks like us, you should also be aware of problems to watch out for in your editorial partners. Red flags for ghostwriters, editors, or book coaches evaluating clients…