Blog Archives

Book Report: Microstyle

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Lee Brooks — Leave a comment

“So, how do you pack a lot of meaning into a little message? You don’t. That’s the first lesson of microstyle. A message isn’t a treasure chest full of meaning. It’s more like a key that opens doors. A message…

Tagged with: 30 Rock, awkwordplay, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Blackberry, Christopher Johnson, elements of style, expressive economy, grammar, Helen Gurley Brown, Lexicon Branding, linguistics, Malcolm Gladwell, Marc Hershon, messaging, Michael Lewis, micromessages, Microstyle, naming, portmanteau, rules for writers, SandScript, Seth Godin, Squidoo, storytelling, taglines, The Rural Juror, uncanny valley, William Safire, words that work, writing, xkcd
Posted in Advertising, Books, Everything, Marketing

The Ambiguity of…Numbers?

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Lee Brooks — 1 Comment

Researchers have shown people who use “50%” or “fifty-fifty” often do not mean it literally. They mean “I’m not sure” or “it’s uncertain” – or more simply “maybe.” Previously, I wrote about The Ambiguity of Language. Words are fuzzy, their…

Tagged with: ambiguity, analysis, Barack Obama, CIA, communication, Family Guy, forecasting, Mark Bowden, numbers, probabilities, rain, Superforecasting, uncertainty, weather, xkcd
Posted in Books, Everything, Marketing

Technical Communications: Stories All the Way Down

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Lee Brooks — 1 Comment

“The fractal expansion of stories does not stop when we hit facts, but when we hit common stories based on common experience. Facts are just stories we agree on.” – Mark Baker Last night was the inaugural meeting of Communitech’s Technical…

Tagged with: Carolyn O'Hara, Chip Heath, Communitech, curse of knowledge, Dan Heath, Every Page is Page One, Frank Luntz, HBR, Jean-Luc Godard, John Coleman, John Snow, Mark Baker, Nick Morgan, oxytocin, Paul J. Zak, Randall Munroe, Steven Johnson, storytelling, Technical Communications P2P, the pain with no name, Thing Explainer, xkcd
Posted in Marketing

Book Report: How to Lie with Statistics

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Lee Brooks — 2 Comments

“The fact is that, despite its mathematical base, statistics is as much an art as it is a science. A great many manipulations and even distortions are possible within the bounds of propriety. Often the statistician must choose among methods,…

Tagged with: Dilbert, lessons, lies, politics, propaganda, statistics, Vi Hart, xkcd
Posted in Advertising, Books, Math and Science

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