Serving Up Success
Not every content strategy you read about is healthy or nutritious. Sometimes, it’s just gross—chewed-up scraps that won’t make anybody feel good. You might think you’re being thrifty or efficient by serving up your leftovers with some chips, but it’s not often all that appetizing. Or nourishing. Regurgitation often just makes people gag (just like […]
Against the Ideology of Stupid
I was bullied through most of school. A lot. Not just for being a non-conformist—eyeliner, torn clothes safety pins, as early 80s as you can imagine. Not just for being gay. Not just for coming from a single-parent household. There was a much deeper stigma… I was effortlessly, unstudiously, and unapologetically smart (i.e., good at […]
The Anti-Intellectual Cult of Writing Advice
Too much writing advice is just good old-fashioned tent-revival anti-intellectual crap. Writing experts intone their points with the cynical piety of anyone who broadcasts truisms—cynical because it positions those experts as having the solution to redeem people from their doomed attempts at thinking. I’m old enough to remember when dogma dictated we should write for […]
Eleven Years Ago, I Made a Move That Changed My Life
Eleven years ago today, a tow truck took my car and movers emptied my house in New Jersey as it poured down rain. It looked like another sad story of the brutal financial crisis. But, no. I was getting on a plane headed to Los Angeles, on my way to a new house I had […]
Authenticity in a World of Thought Leadership
Nothing is new. Nothing is true. This dictum may seem strange when advocating for thought leadership, but hear me out. Let’s take the Pythagorean theorem, for example. In one sense, what better “thought leadership” than having a fundamental principle named after you? But: Back to thought leadership, what does this all mean? If becoming a […]