There’s a lot of bad writing out there. It’s everywhere. We all see it. Emails, decks, articles, newsletters! It’s a perpetual river of verbose, incoherent and unenjoyable words strung together with little thought. So many sentences that should have been deleted before they were even put on the page, and all seemingly written by nihilists.
We deserve better.
We deserve clever word choices, turns of phrases and short declarative sentences. Active verbs. No cliché or jargony words. Just like your teacher taught you in 8th grade. She was right.
Whether you’re a lawyer, in finance, the government, or in marketing (Marketing! The worst!), there’s no doubt you’ve learned a bit of that special industry speak. Using those buzzy technical terms is a signal to others in the industry that you’re one of them, because to everyone else, they’re just meaningless syllables. Pieces of flotsam floating in the nothing. These industry words don’t do the work we think they do. They don’t give us power or make us sound smarter. Industry speak—it really doesn’t matter the industry—is a self-conscious flex in the mirror, not a clever use of language. But why flex when you can persuade, entertain and communicate with good plain English?
I’m convinced that writing well and communicating well is the biggest common asset among successful leaders in any industry. Find me a CEO of a successful company that can’t clearly communicate a complex topic, strategy or business problem with concise plain English. I don’t think you can. Successful coaches, politicians and artists all have a way of clearly communicating complex ideas simply. And the best ones do this by speaking in plain English. I’m talking about clarity and brevity.
And active verbs too of course.
I’m not the only one who thinks this way. A few pieces I enjoyed recently on this very situation:
This Week in Good Work
Bono Can Write
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that Bono can string together a beautiful essay. Making someone feel something with words—storytelling—is the ultimate creative act. It’s the simplest, most stripped-down, only-the-essentials creative output. Words. Page.
Musicians are in the business of words too (or at least many are) and they are master traffickers of emotion. But if you strip away the instruments, the fans, the producers and the mix, are the words as strong? Most of the time no.
A good songwriter does not make a good essayist. Here, it does.
Design this Watch and Celebrate in AP Style
When I was at Hodinkee, one of my favorite programs that I pitched to a (certain German) watch brand involved, essentially, tapping the watch community to design a new watch. It would have been amazing. Watch people are freakishly passionate - and critical - about design, and challenging them to come up with a new one, seemed like such a good way to riff off this passion (and also subtly school them on just how hard it is to design a watch). Of course, the icing on the cake would have be actually making the watch and bringing it to life.
So when I saw this Royal Oak design contest, I immediately felt insane jealousy pangs. This was essentially my idea, but honestly, executed even more elegantly. Here’s the deal: Audemars Piguet and Wristcheck (the online retailer of watches) are inviting readers to design a Royal Oak. You just have to download the template, fill it in and send it back. There’s no limit to how many entries you can submit. Four winners will be picked and flown to Switzerland to celebrate in AP style.
For those unfamiliar with the watch world, that AP is doing this is insane. It’s basically THE watch lover’s brand (high-end and typically way out of reach for most of us) and this year they celebrate 50 years of their most iconic design: the Royal Oak. Rolex would never open itself up like this and in a moment when luxury watch brands really really need to connect with more watch lovers (because getting a watch is so so hard thanks to huge waitlists) this seems like a genius marketing move.
So if you want a trip to Switzerland, and maybe your own custom Royal Oak, get sketching. I certainly will.
Seiko x Nick LaVecchia
I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with Maine-based coastal photographer Nick LaVecchia on a few projects now, so getting him in front of the lens for this recent Seiko piece for Gear Patrol to tell his story was extra special. LaVecchia captures these moments in Maine with a lucid and unique eye and he’s by far one of my favorite Instagram follows. I even have his artwork hanging on my walls at home.
That’s it for now.
John