The right words in the right sequence create information. Ideas that change our world.
The first kind of word salad allows the writer to hide. Fancy words, carefully juxtaposed, saying nothing. This can serve a valuable function for politicians, academics and bosses–but there’s no real information for the reader. It’s simply a collection of words pretending to be an idea.
The second kind of word salad is different. This is the reader’s choice. An idea that’s complex, frightening or brand new can be difficult to embrace. Dismissing it as word salad is the easiest way to maintain the status quo and move on.
The simple tell: Is anyone else getting the idea? If the emperor is actually wearing clothes, insisting that they’re naked doesn’t do you any good.
Important ideas often seem like word salad at first.
Even though it’s invisible, easily transported and weightless, software used to stick around. It took years to architect and build a complex bit of software, and thousands of people to help maintain it. Even a complex website could be seen as a durable technical asset.
Now, with Claude Code on everyone’s desk, new software is often easier to write than old software is to maintain.
No one gives a second thought to disposable cups or bottles–and we’re in the midst of an explosion of temporary and disposable software that will dwarf what came before.
And yet, one thing persists: The network.
When an organization is at the center of a network, it doesn’t matter if a competitor makes a fresh new piece of software. The network sticks around.
A vibrant network is more valuable than ever. People like us are here, doing things like this. Why would we go over there?
The meeting is now broken.
Even if you were actually engaging with the attendees before, it’s over. You took a new medium and stuffed an old one into it, changed the dynamic and ruined it.
Zoom is a device that eliminates physical distance and enables a synchronized conversation. Interactions in real time. In particular, groups of three to eight professionals, there to have a discussion.
Throwing your powerpoint into the mix transforms the dynamic. It takes your face off the screen and makes everyone else irrelevant. It forbids interaction. And it prevents you from reacting to the room as it unfolds, since it’s linear.
The disrespect comes through, even if you didn’t intend it to.
If you have something to show us, send it before the meeting. If there’s a memo, we can read it in advance, or afterward. In fact, if the memo is really important, simply pause the meeting while we all take two minutes to read it. We know how to read.
Reading and interacting are different events.
Powerpoint was invented by socially-awkward engineers as a way to create deniability and clarity in boring tech meetings. It’s a persistently misused piece of tech, used as a crutch or an effective way to hide.
If you call a meeting, do the work to earn it. Make sure the right people are there, make sure you’re prepared and make sure they are too. Use any excuse you can to cancel the meeting and replace it with a memo, one that’s short, clear and designed to accept responsibility.
There’s another new medium that’s arriving–well-edited, short and punchy videos, a one-way method to carefully say what you wanted to say. Send one of those if you want…
Show and tell has a long history going back to first grade. But if you’re going to do show and tell, do it with care.
When we upgrade something in our lives, the thing we used to be satisfied with is no longer satisfying.
That’s the nature of an upgrade.
After a certain point, the only thing we’re buying is the way the upgrade makes us feel in the moment, not our satisfaction going forward.
Stereos, salt, art on the wall. It’s easy to get hooked on the climb, not the altitude.
Luxury goods are a special set of upgrades. These are purchases that aren’t actually an upgrade, they simply feel that way because of their cost (and the status that goes with it).
At some point, the best upgrade is the realization that we have enough.
This is a useful term. It helps us understand a topic or theory that can be considered from multiple points of view by people engaging with good intent.
“Pluto is a planet” was a controversial statement among some people who study the solar system.
On the other hand, it’s not controversial that Pluto actually exists.
Choosing to engage in a conversation about something that’s controversial gives us a chance to share our insights and engage in dialogue. And it also comes with the knowledge that we’ll need to devote time and care to having that conversation.
On the other hand, inventing false controversy is simply a tool to keep people away.
If you insist that the world is flat, and that talking about its spherical nature is controversial, then you’ve made it hard to be a travel agent, a geologist or a sailor. You’ve scared people away from a productive conversation because you’re claiming something without good intent.
The key element of ‘controversial’ is possibility. If that’s not there, it’s simply an empty argument.
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