Focus and write faster without AI (in April Wordnerdery)
You may not want to give AI your company’s or client’s information. Or you may not be fast enough at coming up with the detailed prompts you need to get a usable first draft from AI, or the time to make up for AI hallucinations. When you have something to...
Assignment: Learn about regrets and do-overs
If you could go back in time, what would you do over? That’s what my client asked its members. My assignment was to follow up and get the details – some surprising, some inspiring – for their quarterly magazine. The results are in my article below, featured on page 19...
Analogies explain the confusing, like tariffs (in March Wordnerdery)
Steve Jobs used an analogy when he introduced the iPod in 2001, saying it held your whole music library in a device small enough to fit in your pocket. As he said, “Analogies work because they make the unfamiliar familiar; they help the mind navigate new terrain by...
Communication in the workplace: Links to helpful posts you might have missed
If your social media feeds are jammed with political news, you might like to look at the relatively calm world of employee communication. Just kidding, with tariffs and firings and turmoil over DEI, it’s not calm at all. But here’s another roundup of links you might...
Help the public actually understand your public notice (a Before & After in Wordnerdery)
Companies often have to meet government requirements to let people know what they’re up to. To do so, they publish public notices online and in newspapers. But what if those public notices are dense and confusing? A recent newspaper notice caught my eye because the...
Assignment: How’s dating the second time around?
With Valentine’s Day on the doorstep, this may be a timely question. How do you meet that special someone, especially when you’re widowed? Once upon a time, people met at church or pursuing hobbies or through a friend or family member. These days, people...
Even more to learn about AI, in links you might have missed
You’ve been warned that artificial intelligence “hallucinates” (lies or makes up stuff). While you likely expect that in written work, you have to look out for it in photos, too. Matt Groh and his colleagues at Kellogg School of Management have identified five...
Create meaning by crunching the numbers (in January Wordnerdery)
The wildfires that dominated the news earlier this month are still blazing in Los Angeles. As I write this, the largest, Palisades, is only 59% contained. More than 200,000 people were evacuated; at least 27 are dead. More than 15,000 buildings have been destroyed or...