Not that I particularly expect anyone to notice, but I haven’t written a new blog post in almost a month. And it feels great. The pressure’s off. I’m not really sure why I ever felt pressure to blog—it’s not a rational thing. But I do know my own psychology enough to realize that I’m driven [...]
Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
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Freedom from Opinions
February 21st, 2013 
dave Sometimes, we take the freedom of speech in unproductive directions. At some point in American history, somebody decided that it was a virtue to have an opinion about everything—and to have a big mouth about that opinion. I’m not sure exactly what benefit this is supposed to have, but I have yet to see anyone [...]
Tags: The Atrophied Muscle of Imagination
February 15th, 2013 dave I’ve often found myself in work situations where I caught myself thinking, “I hope this will last.” Have you ever had a great set of circumstances that were wholly dependent on factors outside of your control? It can look, for example, like having a great boss—until you get re-assigned to another department. Things are great—until [...]
A Great Example of Personal Branding
February 11th, 2013 dave Today, I’m going to invite you to take ten minutes to check out what my friend Minling Chuang has put together. She has created a branding course called The Brandary. It’s been a crazy week, and I haven’t had time to fully delve into everything she’s sent me, but based on the 7:50 introductory video, [...]
Every Word Makes an Impact
February 9th, 2013 dave Whether or not you consider yourself a writer, you do some kind of writing at some point during the course of your activities. Even if you work at a job that most people wouldn’t consider writing-intensive, you might want to stop and think about how many times per day you write something. Whether it’s a [...]
On Writing and “Tuning”
January 29th, 2013 dave In the instant sci-fi classic “Dark City,” an advanced civilization of beings demonstrates an ability called “tuning.” The alien race somewhat resembles the Borg, with the same albino-white skin and bald heads—except they don’t have jacks plugged into their skulls and they aren’t fitted with cybernetic gear. They also don’t fly around in a cool-looking [...]
Writing Cures All
January 28th, 2013 dave Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban is known for a trademark saying: “Sales Cures All.” This is somewhat of a nod to Cuban; I’ve decided to adopt my own variation on this phrase. It’s been nearly seven months since I decided to embark on the Million-Word Challenge. What I’ve come to realize is just how many of [...]
Writing Can Lead into Dark Places
December 20th, 2012 dave Today, I found myself in a dark place. I had the whole morning to myself. I had nowhere to go. I had no one to see. No one was waiting on me to do anything. There were no fires to put out. Essentially, I had the morning off. That is a concept I still have [...]
Coffee is a Recreational Drug
December 14th, 2012 dave “I need coffee to get my brain working.” This type of talk is evidence of what brilliant and powerful people copywriters are. The advertising industry has managed to persuade an entire culture that it can function more effectively with caffeine in its system than without it—even though there is absolutely no factual basis for this [...]
Too Much Information
December 7th, 2012 dave I used to hate the idea of elevator pitches. But they’ve started to grow on me. What can I say? It’s an acquired taste. But here’s what I like about elevator pitches: they’re short. Short communication is the key to being effective. The longer it takes you to get your message across, the less likely [...]
