germanflores’s posterous

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way." - mark twain

Writing is hard work. Sometimes we write about what we know. Sometimes we write about what we are thinking—to attempt to clarify that thinking. Zinsser,  “Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise. Pomposity is noise. Clutter is noise: all those unnecessary adjectives (“ongoing progress”), all those unnecessary prepositions draped onto verbs (“order up”), all those unnecessary phrases (“in a very real sense”). Information is your sacred product, and noise is its pollutant.” We are in the “Information” Technology business. We have to separate information from noise. Learning to write well should be on every agilist’s career development list.

Getting rid of excess words in my writing but it requires time and dedication. I'm try to make my writing simple and concise.

For many, it's a fact of life—puppies are cute, bugs are icky, and Google just works.

Great chapter on Search from Web Anatomy book. There is so much to search but this is a great base start. Another quote:

"Plainly and simply: the number one reason people use search systems is to resolve an error condition—the error of being unable to find content via site navigation."

Interesting on how to tackle this when you have so much content.

Now a word on replying. As I said, never use the Linked in defaults! When I get an invitation – whether I accept it or not – I always send a message to the sender before accepting. I do it because I think it’s a matter of simple courtesy. If John has taken the time to craft his invitation, why shouldn’t I take a couple of minutes to reply? So, I hit the reply button (if I’m reading the message there), write my reply, hit send, and that takes me back to the invitation, which I accept.

Some good advice on replying to LinkedIn invitations.

Headlines

A well thought of and clear headline can generate four times the interest of a poor one. Headlines shouldn’t be longer than 7 words and should be written in the present tense.

Great tips about writing. I need to get better at these.

On the six-foot-by-five-foot whiteboard I bought for $450 and glued onto the plywood I nailed into the wall with my dad, I had written words. In my fantasy, I was a visual thinker. In my reality, a writer.

Interesting thought to answer yourself if you are a visual thinker or a writer. I love doing diagrams and mind maps but also love to write lists for everything.