Michael > Michael's Quotes

“research on happiness shows that those who live under a self-imposed pressure to be optimal in their enjoyment of things suffer a measure of distress.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

“One executive suggests a discipline — putting down first what you want the reader to do, next the three most important things the reader needs to understand to take that action, then starting to write. When you’re done, he suggests asking yourself whether if you were the reader, would you take action on the basis of what is written.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Bad writing slows things down; good writing speeds them up.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Take the time to boil down what you want to say, and express it confidently in simple, declarative sentences. Remember the man who apologized for writing such a long letter, explaining that he didn’t have time to write a short one.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“There are only 266 words in the Gettysburg Address. The shortest sentence in the New Testament may be the most moving: “Jesus wept.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Woman without her man has no reason for living. With a colon and a comma, the writer would get a different reaction: Woman: without her, man has no reason for living.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Resource constrained instead of not enough people to do the job. Bake in the numbers instead of include. In the August timeframe instead of August. Tasked by the organization instead of assigned. The optics of the plan instead of how the plan will look. Double-click the point instead of emphasize. Drill down instead of analyze. Scope this out instead of check further. On a go-forward basis instead of in the future. Operationalized its goal, instead of achieved. Aggressively ramp headcount instead of hiring a lot of people. Or bandwidth — as in I don’t have the bandwidth (time) for that meeting or He doesn’t”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Someone asked Rodin how he could sculpt an elephant out of marble. It’s easy, he responded, “You just chip away everything that isn’t an elephant.” Chip away everything that isn’t your point.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business