1996 was the worst year of my life. Our law partnership had blown up spectacularly, with two partners in heavy-duty litigation against one another, and the rest of us drawn in as hapless bit players. Our excellent staff found work elsewhere and clients fled the radiation zone in droves. Money dried up almost instantly, but…
Today’s Briefing is about a power-writing technique you can use immediately in all your communications, whether simple e-mails, websites, sales packages, technical reports, job applications, even arguments at the Supreme Court– just about anything that you produce in order to get somebody to do something. But first, about the song. Joy to the World was…
I’ve been cranking out Friday Briefings since 2016. Usually, something is in draft by Tuesday and polished up on Wednesday. But not this week. The article steadfastly refused to materialise. This edition had at least five false starts, on everything from COVID melancholy to the danger of demagogues. None of them deserved the light of…
It’s useful to think of some professional firms as tribes. This can provide valuable insights for the firms and their advisors. What do I mean by “tribe” in this setting? I mean a collective which has a deep sense of shared identity, and a deeply-held shared culture, typically driven by a common ancestry. More often…
There are thousands of reported cases of house blindness directly attributable to the pandemic. If you, as a professional or business owner, suffer from house blindness, it can cost you dearly. Here’s what I mean by house blindness: not seeing an obvious mess in your living or work space because, by virtue of familiarity, your…
Over the course of the epidemic we’ve been deluged by technical terms. One of these is the moving average, sometimes called the “running average” or “rolling average”. Although currently used to explain COVID statistics, the device is a powerful tool in many areas of our lives and businesses. Let’s explore that a little. As every…
Early in the pandemic I wrote about why we were not going to see a repeat of the Dirty Thirties, mostly because of today’s higher level of distributed wealth, the lower levels of abject poverty going into this, technology, and the (so far mostly) smarter response of governments. I’m confident that this will remain the…
Chickens aren’t among God’s brightest creatures, and the image of a hungover chicken is almost too sad to contemplate. Nevertheless, there is a lesson therein. Actually, I’m playing fast and loose with two different descriptors of the same phenomenon. “The chickens coming home to roost” and suffering a nasty hangover after a night of partying…
Being a lawyer myself, and having a warped sense of humour, I’ve always had a repertoire of lawyer jokes at hand. I’ve found them to be great icebreakers in settings which were, well, icy. But recently, I’ve had second thoughts. Second thoughts because of an insightful comment from a good lawyer friend. “Sure,” he said,…
In this strange COVID season, let’s take time for gratitude as we celebrate our country’s birthday. Gratitude not just for this vast land with its bounty and beauty, but also for the people we call fellow citizens, and for our guests who will become our fellow citizens. Gratitude not just for the large liberty safeguarded…