Our anticipation and response to fame should mirror the anticipation and response of the ancient acolyte to a visitation from the gods. During the new moon the acolyte enters the temple, dons the vest, lights the incense, and prepares the sacrifice. … [Read more]
What A Doomsday Cult Can Teach Us about Being Specific
Imagine it's late afternoon, Sunday. You are curled beneath an afghan, still bloated from the fried fish you inhaled for lunch. You are sleeping heavily. Until your doorbell erupts. You shuffle to the front door and open it. An autumn thunderstorm … [Read more]
Gimpy Web Copy? Use This 4-Step Formula to Make It Killer
Do you want a simple, sticky formula that turns your listless copy into something that rivets attention, stokes desire, and gets action? If you said "yes," then the 4 Ps is what you are after. Let’s start with an example. Here's a short ad … [Read more]
Introducing My New Podcast: Rough Draft
And then there was the podcast: Rough Draft. Essential writing advice you need to succeed online, in about four minutes a day, four days a week. It's a sequential show. A journey. I start from the very beginning and work through principles and … [Read more]
How My Admiration for Maria Popova Turned into Jealousy (but Not for Long)
If you don't know who Maria Popova is ... shame on you. She's the founder and curator of Brain Pickings ... one of the few blogs catalogued into the Library of Congress. That blog is a bottomless source of curiosities. And for any writer, a … [Read more]
How to Be More Successful When You Ask a Favor
While Enlightenment-era thinkers would like you to believe otherwise, we are not as rational as we think we are. Books like Irrational Exuberance, Emotional Intelligence, and Descartes’ Error teach us that even the most analytical among us make … [Read more]
What In the World Is Wrong with These Bloggers?
I'm about a month late to this party. Oh well. It's still important to address. On January 28, 2015, Andrew Sullivan announced his retirement from blogging. For those who don't know, Andrew Sullivan is the grandfather of political … [Read more]
Want to Sweep Away Skepticism? Demonstrate Your Product
The first mention of an elevator is thought to be around 236 A.D. It was nearly seventeen hundred years later before the first working models were actually installed (in English and French palaces, no less). There was just one problem. If the lift … [Read more]
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