Sometimes revenge is best served in literature. The poet Dante Alighieri, powerless against the forces that had exiled him from his native Florence, populated his vision of hell with proxies for his enemies. The resulting epic poem has become a masterwork in Italian literature. If only politics were so literate today! Dante’s Inferno describes nine […]
The Quest for the Perfect Book Title: A/B Testing
Which would you rather drink? Simple A/B testing. The right blog or book title can be the difference between your writing earning a few moments of consideration and passing immediately into oblivion. If your blog post, article, or book needs to find an audience in the larger world, an effective title or headline is critical. The […]
The Science of Value Nurturing and Happy Customers
Do you measure Net Promoter Score or customer loyalty? Are you tracking customer retention and engagement? Each of these metrics attempts to answer the same fundamental question: how happy people are being customers. For all of the effort we spend measuring and monitoring these metrics, it’s worth considering the deeper question of human motivation. What makes people happy about spending money? […]
Deadlines Add Life to the Writing Process
Deadline. The word itself has an ominous, unsettling feel: the point beyond which you must not pass. According to Merriam-Webster, the word originated in an actual line beyond which straying prisoners would be shot. Ouch. Deadlines feel like impending doom if you’re not prepared. Ask any college student in the days before midterm papers are due. Yet the word […]
Hacking the Negativity Bias When Writing
The more success you have with your writing, the more opinions you’ll hear, both good and bad. Even mildly negative criticism and setbacks can pack a punch, including: Bad online reviews Negative comments on a blog post Email unsubscribes (which always, of course, happen right after you send an email) Book returns The stray comment from an acquaintance, like […]
Writing and the Imposter Syndrome
“I’m not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people. I wish I were.” If you have ever had these thoughts, you’re in good company. These words appear in the journals of John Steinbeck. Yes, that Steinbeck – the one who won a Nobel Prize for literature. He wrote this journal entry in late summer of 1938, while he […]