Do you know your audience? “So the three reasons readers might not already know what you tell them are (a) that it’s not important, (b) that they’re obtuse, or (c) that they’re inexperienced.The reason I did this breakdown was to… Read More »Why Write?
This never occurred to me as a reason but makes so much sense “The accuracy of the search results was reduced, which meant that users needed to do two or three queries to the get the results they would have… Read More »Why Most Sites Are Bad
This could explain why we have such a hard time with some client or colleagues “it should be obvious that the purpose of writing is to convey information, and in a rapidly complexifying world the amount of written information normal… Read More »Most people are illiterate
“We live in the era of the symbolic executive, when “being good at stuff” matters far less than the appearance of doing stuff, where “what’s useful” is dictated not by outputs or metrics that one can measure but rather the… Read More »We Are Ruled by Idiots
“in the real world, knowledge is earned through movement. Friction. Ambiguity. The old experience of falling into a stack of books at the library wasn’t efficient, but that was hardly the point. You’d go in looking for one answer and… Read More »Getting Answers Is Not The Point
“Dabhoiwala points out that the saying ‘while sticks and stones may break my bones, words can never hurt me’ is first recorded only in 1862, but the contrary sentiment, ‘the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones,’ is found in… Read More »What is Free Speech?
A deep dive into the trade wars and deficits “the trade deficit and global reserve currency status are inexorably linked. Global reserve currency status overvalues the dollar, and the overvalued dollar boosts our import power and harms our export competitiveness,… Read More »What is a Trade Deficit
A real deep dive into warfare “The problem this is solving is the danger of an enemy, especially cavalry, crossing the entire effective range of the weapon in the long gap between shots. This, by the by, was the volley… Read More »Volley Fire in Movies vs. History
Human language is not exact, here is a great example “a NATO study would find something similar: ask 23 officers what ‘likely’ means in terms of probability, and you’ll get a dozen different numbers” https://kucharski.substack.com/p/possibly-a-serious-possibility
Even the most perfect system will eventually fail “For generations, this system worked brilliantly against every opponent. Tribal warriors from Gaul? Crushed. Greek phalanxes? Defeated. The mighty armies of Carthage? Sent packing in the First Punic War. Rome’s military success… Read More »When Perfect System Fails