How to Write Good
This list of 52 tips on How to Write Good by the Commission to Use Plain Language in Government cracked me up. Their site is filled with examples, many of them quite humorous, of before-and-after rewrites of “gov-speak.”
Technorati Tags: writing, language, government
A Convenient Truth about Communication Techniques
Al Gore has become a master communicator with his An Inconvenient Truth tour. Carmin Gallo does a fabulous job of analyzing what makes it work in his BusinessWeek piece titled Al Gore’s Convenient Truth. Gallo says, “Set politics aside and analyze the former Vice-President’s documentary—it contains five powerful communication techniques for speaking success.”
Z-List, Google Reader, and OPML
I created an RSS feed of the Z-List in my KnowHR Google Reader. and created an OPML file of the 125 feeds I could find by the time the Z-List came my way.
Click here to get the Z-List OPML File.
And if you would like to add to the list, please send me an RSS feed and I’ll output a Z-List OPML each day here for the next week.
Photo credit: Claudecf
Making Z-List and Checking It Twice
I saw a reference to the Z-List meme on Seth’s Blog titled What to Read Now/Next. It’s a little experiment in the interpenetrating network of great writing and writers - and it’s a way to discover new things. I read over 100 blogs a day through RSS on Google Reader. This Z-List meme is going to add a lot more to my list, and my life is going to be all the richer for it.
The trick is to pick up this list from here and add your blog to the bottom along with a few more Z-List links that you think people should know about. I copied the list from Seth by grabbing links in the page source…you can do the same. KnowHR is added to the bottom along with a few more that I thought would be fun to have on Z-List (add Pepe LePew accent here).
Creative Think
Soloride
Movie Marketing Madness
Blog Till You Drop!
Get Shouty!
One Reader at a Time
100 Bloggers
Critical Fluff
The New PR
Own Your Brand!
OTOInsights
bizandbuzz
Work, in Plain English
Buzz Canuck
New Millenium PR
Pardon My French
The Instigator Blog
AENDirect
Diva Marketing
Marketing Hipster
The Marketing Minute
Funny Business
The Frager Factor
Mindblob
OrbitNow!
Open The Dialogue
Word Sell
Note to CMO:
That’s Great Marketing!
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Andy Nulman
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
Darren Barefoot
Two Hat Marketing
The Engaging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
Conversation Agent
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Carpe Factum
Steve’s 2 Cents
Simplicity
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Make it Great!
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
Urban Jacksonville
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com
37 Days
A Clear Eye
Alex Halavais
Brand Autopsy
Brand Soul
Creating Passionate Users
Crossroads Dispatches
Drawn
eHub
FAST Company
gapingvoid
gillianic tendencies
Good Experience
Hitchhikers Guide to the Blogosphere
Hobopoet
How to Save the World
Josh Hallett
Joy of Six
Learned on Women
Listics
Make it Great
my topography
New Charm School
Occupational Adventure
Orbit Now
Pause
PureLand Mountain
Seth Godin
Simplicity
Songs of Experience
Talking Story
Time Goes By
Tom Peters
Tomorrow Today
WonderBranding
Joyful Jubilant Learning
KnowHR Blog
Anders|Denken
Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
Chief Happiness Officer
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
Technorati Tags: zlist
Do What You Love and Success Will Follow
My buddy, Ubermensch, sent me a note with a link that I thought summed up the answer to that burning question: “What’s it all about, Alfie?” The link was to Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford in June 2005. Short speech:
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.
Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
Ubermensch has it right, and so did Jobs by closing with these words: Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
I wish you all a happy holidays and hope for a prosperous new year.
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