Archive: April 16, 2009

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revising email

Thursday,  04/16/09  09:56 PM

Good advice from David Silverman: How to revise an email so people will read it: Delete redundancies. Use numbers and specifics, not adverbs and adjectives. Add missing context. Focus on the strongest argument. Delete off-topic material. Seek out equivocation and remove it. Kill your favorites. Delete anything written in the heat of emotion. Shorten. Give it a day. The longer I am in business, the more I've become convinced that good communication is a crucial business skill. This is one reason among many why I like blogging; it is good communication practice!

 

Twitter jumps the shark

Thursday,  04/16/09  11:08 PM

Today the Twitterverse really maxed out on hype, as Ashton Kutcher and CNN raced each other to 1,000,000 followers, and Oprah sent her first tweet.  While driving to work I received an email from my friend Gary titled "what makes you think Twitter is useless?", linking the office chair which tweets when its occupant farts.  (My response: "sometimes the farts from that end are more insightful than the other") Later while in a board meeting (!) I received the following "CNN Breaking News" alert: Ashton Kutcher is first to reach 1 million followers in Twitter contest with CNN.  That's it, I said to myself.  Twitter has jumped the shark.

 

Thursday,  04/16/09  11:19 PM

I feel energized today...  I can't say it was a great day, but somehow the events of the day conspire to make me restless, like, I have to do something.  I'm back from Seattle, but immediately drove down to Vista for meetings, and later had a nice dinner with my friend/colleague Nick, and then a nice bike ride as the sun was setting, down from Solana Beach into La Jolla... ... feels like a sleepless night ahead ... Gerard Vanderleun has pictures of the Seattle Tea Party yesterday.  Wow, I was there, I could have gone...  and actually I almost met Gerard; we got as far as exchanging email, but I'd already made other plans...  seems like this tea party thing has legs, people are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore.  Glenn Reynolds reports on a tea party in Greenville: "They will be selling the 'Obama burger' - you pay for one and they cut it in half and give the rest to the guy behind you for free!"  That's not as funny as it could be.  Wow!  Football legend John Madden to retire.  So be it.  He will be missed...  Dave Winer: random thoughts over morning coffee.  One of his most though-provoking posts in a long time.  I follow some bloggers for news, and some for entertainment, but I follow Dave because he makes me think.  It is clear that he likes what Twitter was, but not what it has become.  Ann Althouse: Smile for a longer lasting marriage.  Okay :)  Decision time for Facebook: Term sheet received at $2B valuation.  For those not keeping scoring at home, that is slightly lower than the $15B valuation at which they took money from Microsoft.  I don't see how they can take that without either compensating Microsoft or making them look bad, or both.  ZooBorn to be?  Lara meets Bill...

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