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Here’s my blog on strategy, work, words and communications.
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A Don’t Count list
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
– Peter Drucker
I’ve written previously about the benefits of a To Don’t list…
Order matters
What’s strange about a noisy, Spanish, large, talking orange parrot?
Did you have to read that twice? I bet you did if your first language is English.
Why? Because the adjectives are in the wrong order.
Because you can never have too much fish
This is great government comms – education and entertainment.
The doorbell that rings for fish
Human development is hard on the environment. Cities block nature’s way—damming rivers, building highways, destroying habitat, and cutting off migration paths. But there’s a lock in Europe where humans can become nature’s unexpected helpers for a few weeks each spring.
English as she is hilarious
Abraham Lincoln laughed at it. Mark Twain championed it. Monty Python took inspiration from it. And nearly 170 years later, English as She Is Spoke remains one of the most unintentionally funny books ever written.
The phrasebook was published in 1855 by Pedro Carolino to help Portuguese speakers learn English. The only problem? Carolino seemingly didn’t know English…
Choosing our reactions
“Ev’ry action has its equal, opposite reactions
Thanks to Hamilton, our cab’net’s fractured into factions
Try not to crack under the stress, we’re breaking down like fractions”
There’s plenty of research on the cost of bad writing in business
There’s plenty of research on the cost of bad writing in business. The data suggests that the average white-collar worker spends around 136 minutes a week trying to make sense of poor writing.
What not to say
Recently a visitor to Buckingham Palace was interrogated about her origins by a lady-in-waiting.
It’s not always easy to find the right words
It’s not always easy to find the right words. Sometimes we sit with a blank screen before us, even when we write for a living.
But some tricks make it easier.
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