Author Topic: I hate journalistic writing (Read 99501 times)

Jonathon · « **Reply #725 on:** February 15, 2016, 09:51:16 AM »

At least in Utah!

Jonathon · « **Reply #726 on:** February 24, 2016, 08:38:02 AM »

Okay, I know I love to make fun of print journalists a lot, but this opening line is actually really good:

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If tragedy plus time equals comedy, what does Yahoo plus Time equal?

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rivka · « **Reply #727 on:** February 24, 2016, 09:32:12 AM »

Indeed.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #728 on:** March 17, 2016, 11:30:37 AM »

I debated whether or not this needed its own thread, and the little voice in my head that didn't want to waste new pieces of cyber-paper won out.

But let me just say it somewhere: I HATE BUSINESS BOOKS. You know, the ones that are all New York Times bestsellers and you don't know how they became bestsellers because who on earth buys and reads that nonsense but then you meet all the businessy people and you suddenly understand.

I'm working on training courses for HR and the clients keep referring to all these books offhand like I should know them all, and they just sent me home with two yesterday to pull some scenarios and quotes out of and good heavens. Who writes these? Very excited people. Very excited people with SO MANY real-life examples who have to just ramble and ramble and make numbered lists and models for everything. Stooooooop!

Jonathon · « **Reply #729 on:** March 17, 2016, 12:03:59 PM »

Are you talking about stuff like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Who Moved My Cheese? and Crucial Conversations and all that crap? If so, yeah, I hate them too. They're generally pretty superficial fluff that take unoriginal insights and repackage them as if they're the most life-changing ideas ever.

They're really great at getting people all jazzed up about some new idea that's going to magically solve all their problems, but in my experience they're not so great as actually solving anything. And I say this from personal experience after working at FranklinCovey, a company cofounded by Stephen R. Covey.

Their consulting business seemed to be doing alright, but the day planner business was circling the drain when I was there, and nobody could figure out how to fix it. They kept asking how we could get more people to buy day planners, but nobody ever considered the possibility that the answer was "We can't." Then they sold the product half of the business to a private equity firm, who of course promised us all that nobody's jobs would go away, and then eventually everyone's jobs went away. So much for habit 1: be proactive.

Jonathon · « **Reply #730 on:** March 17, 2016, 12:04:36 PM »

Also, you don't really need to worry about wasting new pieces of cyber-paper. We've got reams of the stuff!

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #731 on:** March 17, 2016, 12:31:20 PM »

Yeah, that sort of book. One of the ones they referred to me was even worse; it wasn't even written by an author, it was written by a company. With a matching website and a program you pay for and everything. So I pirated an eBook copy to find the quote they wanted me to use - no way I wanted to try and track down the actual book™. But now I have to read the horrid thing.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #732 on:** March 17, 2016, 12:31:54 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on March 17, 2016, 12:04:36 PM

Also, you don't really need to worry about wasting new pieces of cyber-paper. We've got reams of the stuff!

rivka · « **Reply #733 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:33:52 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on March 17, 2016, 12:03:59 PM

They're generally pretty superficial fluff that take unoriginal insights and repackage them as if they're the most life-changing ideas ever.

They're really great at getting people all jazzed up about some new idea that's going to magically solve all their problems, but in my experience they're not so great as actually solving anything.

AMEN, SELAH.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jonathon · « **Reply #734 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:45:48 PM »

I once had some home teachers who taught me and my roommate a lesson from Who Moved My Cheese, and it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever heard.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #735 on:** March 17, 2016, 02:07:49 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on March 17, 2016, 01:45:48 PM

I once had some home teachers who taught me and my roommate a lesson from Who Moved My Cheese, and it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever heard.

Those guys work in corporate jobs in downtown Salt Lake now, I guarantee it. And they probably make way more money than either of us.

Jonathon · « **Reply #736 on:** March 17, 2016, 02:19:42 PM »

True, but what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #737 on:** March 17, 2016, 02:58:24 PM »

About 120K a year.

Megan · « **Reply #738 on:** March 17, 2016, 03:06:11 PM »

I have worked with self-published books for nearly eight years now, and I probably see a minimum of two to three of these per week, every week.

dkw · « **Reply #739 on:** March 18, 2016, 06:22:24 AM »

I had to read a few of those for boards I was on.

The worst are the ones where the author pretends there's a book by the same title and most of the actual book is "reporting" all the wonderful things that happened to people who read the book.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #740 on:** March 18, 2016, 08:56:26 AM »

At the last place where I worked, the CEO was smitten by that Cheese book, and required all his administrative staff to read it (he provided the copies to every office), and from then on, we were expected to work that cheese perspective into our discussions, meetings, and interactions. We all thought is was pretty dopey, and our staff nurses were mostly perplexed when they would get cheese talk from their supervisors

Jonathon · « **Reply #741 on:** March 18, 2016, 09:00:27 AM »

Quote from: dkw on March 18, 2016, 06:22:24 AM

The worst are the ones where the author pretends there's a book by the same title and most of the actual book is "reporting" all the wonderful things that happened to people who read the book.

That sounds awful. I don't think I've read one like that.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #742 on:** March 18, 2016, 09:13:58 AM »

At our annual Christmas, excuse me, holiday, party that year, all the offices from around the country had to perform Cheese-related skits and such. My office sang "My Cheese" to the tune of "My Girl" Who's got cheddar, on a cloudy day . . .. (My boss shot down my suggestion of "Yes, I love cheeses").

I recall sitting with a colleague as we were forced to watch one presentation after another and whispering to her, "I Camembert it any longer!"

Megan · « **Reply #743 on:** March 18, 2016, 09:51:50 AM »

Quote from: dkw on March 18, 2016, 06:22:24 AM

The worst are the ones where the author pretends there's a book by the same title and most of the actual book is "reporting" all the wonderful things that happened to people who read the book.

Oh, yeah, the "business novel." Ugh.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #744 on:** March 18, 2016, 10:57:43 AM »

Quote from: Tante Shvester on March 18, 2016, 09:13:58 AM

At our annual Christmas, excuse me, holiday, party that year, all the offices from around the country had to perform Cheese-related skits and such. My office sang "My Cheese" to the tune of "My Girl" Who's got cheddar, on a cloudy day . . .. (My boss shot down my suggestion of "Yes, I love cheeses").

I recall sitting with a colleague as we were forced to watch one presentation after another and whispering to her, "I Camembert it any longer!"

This sounds like maybe the worst thing ever. I'm glad you improved the situation as much as you could with some valiant puns.

Jonathon · « **Reply #745 on:** March 18, 2016, 11:24:37 AM »

Quote from: Annie Subjunctive on March 18, 2016, 10:57:43 AM

This sounds like maybe the worst thing ever.

My thoughts exactly.

Ela · « **Reply #746 on:** March 21, 2016, 01:02:03 PM »

Quote from: dkw on March 18, 2016, 06:22:24 AM

I had to read a few of those for boards I was on.

The worst are the ones where the author pretends there's a book by the same title and most of the actual book is "reporting" all the wonderful things that happened to people who read the book.

I was encouraged to read a few of those for boards I was on. I couldn't force myself to get through most of them.

And I have a few still hanging around the house that I'd like to get rid of.

dkw · « **Reply #747 on:** March 21, 2016, 04:47:32 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on March 18, 2016, 09:00:27 AM

Quote from: dkw on March 18, 2016, 06:22:24 AM
The worst are the ones where the author pretends there's a book by the same title and most of the actual book is "reporting" all the wonderful things that happened to people who read the book.

That sounds awful. I don't think I've read one like that.

Isn't the cheese one like that? Or maybe I'm conflating it with another one.

Jonathon · « **Reply #748 on:** March 22, 2016, 08:10:18 AM »

I haven't actually read it—I just had an excerpt of it read to me, but that was enough to convince me never to read the rest.

dkw · « **Reply #749 on:** March 22, 2016, 09:10:55 AM »