Reasons for rules; movie trailer AI pollution; California subsidizes news: Newsletter 28 August 2024

Newsletter 59. Why rules without reasons are dumb. Plus, how now to support journalism, tips for book titles, three people to follow, and three books to read.

Never impose a rule without sharing a reason

All experts become familiar with the rules that apply in their area of expertise. Typically, they try to teach others those rules as well. And they often fail.

Google tells me that there are 3.4 million pages that includes the exact words “10 rules,” in that order. I’m betting that includes at least 3.3 million wasted rule lists that nobody will internalize and learn from.

Why? Because rules without reasons are worthless. Knowing a rule makes you a follower. Understanding a rule and where it comes from fuels your creativity and insight.

For any given rule to be helpful, the practitioner must understand:

1. What is the rule?
2. Why does it exist?
3. What goal does the rule support?
4. When can it be broken, and at what cost and benefit?

Let’s take one of my favorite rules for nonfiction writing, “Avoid passive voice whenever possible.” This particular rule comes in for a lot of criticism — no less than Strunk and White endorsed it The Elements of Style, but there are many writers who chafe against it.

But in my many posts and book chapters about passive voice, I explain why I limit passive voice whenever possible. Applying my rubric from above:

1. Rule: avoid passive voice whenever possible.
2. Passive voice sets up confusion in the reader’s mind about who is doing things. In editorials that say “Taxes must be lowered,” we don’t know who is supposed to lower the taxes, and that’s confusing. In technical documentation, there are often passive descriptions, for example, “The database must be refreshed,” that leave it unclear who must refresh it our how. The missing actor in passive-voice sentences leaves the reader confused about who did or must do something. Repeated use of passive voice makes the whole passage seem irrelevant or distant.
3. The rule supports the goal that the purpose of nonfiction writing is to clearly describe what is happening and what the reader should do.
4. When the actor in the sentence is unknown or unimportant, or when the object is more important than the subject, passive voice is appropriate (for example, “My car was stolen”). The problem is not passive voice, it is the constant repetition of passive voice in a passage.

Read that and you know a lot more than you can learn from just reading “Avoid passive voice.” Now a writer can make their own judgment based on whether it is worth it to break the rule.

The same applies to every rule. For example, Jeff Bezos created the two-pizza rule, specifically that no team should be so big it cannot be fed with two pizzas. Applying my rubric:

1. All project teams should be small enough that they can be fed with two pizzas. (Practically, this limits the team to about six to eight people, but it’s a lot more memorable to characterize it in terms of pizzas.)
2. Big teams spend too much of their time on communication overhead and not enough on collaborating to accomplish work.
3. Teams should be as productive as possible, spending time on what matters.
4. You can probably break this rule if, for example, a team needs to occasionally include a few specialists (e.g. lawyers, note-takers) who won’t be interfering with the team’s productivity. But I’m not an organizational design expert, so I don’t really know enough to understand when it might be worth the overhead to break this rule.

So let me finish this little soliloquy with a new rule for you.

1. Never suggest or impose a rule without a brief and compelling description of the reason for the rule.
2. It is far better for people to follow rules because they have a clear understanding of the reason behind the rule. This will allow them to follow the spirit of the rule and to believe in it, not just to follow it blindly.
3. People who are true believers are far more helpful than simple rule-followers.
4. Even simple rules often leave room for reasons. (For example, “Do not touch this high-voltage wire; you could be electrocuted and die.”). I suppose urgency is one reason you might impose a rule without a reason (“Stop smoking in the refinery!”).

There’s a corollary to this principle. It pays to ask why. Because then you’ll know whether the rule makes sense — or whether you should break it.

News for writers and others who think

Jeff Jarvis shared a trenchant analysis of the deal under consideration to support journalistic organizations in California. His point, which the legislature appears to have considered, is that any law that just further subsidizes the hedge-fund driven hollowing out of old-world news organizations is ill-considered.

Here’s a step-by-step approach by Lucy McCarraher to coming up with a title and subtitle for your nonfiction book. It’s full of good rules and reasons (see start of this post), but my experience is that this process is at least as much “aha”-type inspiration as rule following.

Lionsgate put out a trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s new film “Megalopolis” including quotes from foolish critics who’d panned his previous movies. Only one problem: the quotes were apparently fabricated by AI, quoting critics who’d never actually written them. The studio pulled the trailer and apologized. The first rule of gen AI is, never directly quote anything generated by AI, and the reason is, you’ll end up looking like an idiot.

According to a Knight Foundation survey, two-thirds of Americans are against library book bans and 78% think their schools know best what books their kids should read. But only 3% have actually engaged on the issue (2% to preserve access, 1% to block it).

Three people to follow

Simson Garfinkel ex-academic, journalist, entrepreneur, and generally talented storyteller.

Michael Facemire , Forrester’s new CTO. Will this former analyst define new ways to deliver research insights?

Dr. David Burkus , bestselling author and expert on teams and leadership.

Three books to read

Quick Confidence: Be Authentic, Boost Connections, and Make Bold Bets on Yourself by Selena Rezvani (she/her) (Wiley, 2023). Solid tips on routines that may you appear — and feel — confident.

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger and Gene Stone (Flatiron 2015). What to eat to feel and be healthier.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Tor, 2016). A novel of galaxy-bending quantum ideas, now a fantastic Netflix TV series.