Analogies are a powerful way to communicate ideas, but they are also a crutch. We need to be able to explain ideas to readers without analogies and cliches. Relying on someone else's words means we don't fully understand the concept we're trying to explain…
"Most first drafts can be cut by 50 percent without losing any information or losing the author’s voice." — William Zinsser -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Intercom's recent post In Praise of Editing [https://blog.intercom.com/in-praise-of-editing/] has me thinking a lot about how to improve the articles I…
Isn't it interesting that the Internet simultaneously makes our work more and less efficient? On one hand, we can video chat with remote coworkers all over the world. On the other, buzzing notifications, Facebook, emails, Slack, Google Docs, Trello, etc. Each helps and hurts in its own way.…
Technology kind of sucks. Seriously, how many tools or software products have actually made your life better recently? I'll bet almost none. In fact, I'll bet at least a few made your life considerably worse. In the 1930s, economist John Maynard Keynes was worried [http://www.…
UPDATE: I created two worksheets so you can easily brainstorm 50 topics for your own business. There is a PDF that walks you through the process and a spreadsheet to help you pair personas and uses cases. Download them here [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byx9oiqKPAiqNUtEX1Y4VEZtTUE/view] and here…
Work is the process of creating value. Don't mistake sitting at a computer for working. Some of your best work can (and should!) happen with no internet connection at all. Even more importantly, working without a computer can (and should!) happen during normal business hours. Don't…
Content strategy tends to be either overcomplicated or vague. And often both. There's plenty of ways to approach it, but here's a simple template that can be repurposed over and over again. Blog posts are often not strong enough to survive on their own. But if…
A few hundred years ago, sugar was essentially absent from the human diet. Today, according to the New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/opinion/sugar-season-its-everywhere-and-addictive.html] , it's "used in approximately 75 percent of packaged foods purchased in the United States." > The…