4 ms·

I'm always amazed with the capacity and skills American have to write so many words without any actual content. Just words, ramblings, perfectly synchronized se

I'm always amazed with the capacity and skills American have to write so many words without any actual content. Just words, ramblings, perfectly synchronized sentences. I remember when I first read "Getting things done". You'd get 1 valuable lesson/advice every 30 pages. Same thing here. 1 valuable piece of content every 5 (giant) paragraphs.

jacquesm 11y ago
I think that if you believe that I'm American that's probably the best compliment I could get. Writing is hard for me, and this is not my native language, but I'll take your criticism to heart and I'll try to tighten up the text. Thank you for your feedback, greetings from NL.
- skannamalai 11y ago
  As an American, I will say I wish my response would have been as classy as yours.
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  FWIW he doesn't claim you're American, he claims Americans do something and then claims that thing is also done in the OP. Your response is gracious nonetheless. Some people really like longform writing though, the more meandering and reflective the better. Each has its place IMO.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    You are right, and it appears that even reading is hard ;)
- StavrosK 11y ago
  Hey Jacques, reading your post, I initially have a piece of advice: Use more commas, it helps the flow along. Currently it reads a bit urgently, here are some examples: > what bothers me is that in many of these cases the company is much sicker than it has to be, the wounds are to a large extent self inflicted and if only someone had had the presence of mind to change direction when it was still possible the company might have survived Better punctuation: > what bothers me is that, in many of these cases, the company is much sicker than it has to be. The wounds are, to a large extent, self-inflicted, and, if only someone had had the presence of mind to change direction when it was still possible, the company might have survived. Also, I, too, would appreciate an email with context, as something feels missing now.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    Hehe, previously people told me to use less commas... Ok. Will drop you a line.
    - kybernetikos 11y ago
      Please don't take the previous advice uncritically. A good few of the suggested commas are jarring. I thought your text read very well.
      - jacquesm 11y ago
        I'm open to further corrections, how would you write that sentence? (I did the best I could on the original, if I could have done better I would have but punctuation is hard (and quotes are the hardest, for some reason)).
      - StavrosK 11y ago
        The suggested commas are jarring because the sentence is jarring. If I could rewrite the entire sentence, it would be more like this: > what bothers me is that, in many of these cases, the company is much sicker than it has to be. The wounds are largely self-inflicted, and the company might have survived if only someone had had the presence of mind to change direction when it was still possible.
  - lttlrck 11y ago
    Sorry but I much prefer the flow of the original. Misplaced and overuse of commas interrupt flow.
  - dahart 11y ago
    Personally, I think the proposed second example is too many commas, and does not improve the text. It adds a halting and pedantic feeling style to put 'and' in a clause by itself, for example, and arguably bad to separate 'self-inflicted' from 'largely'. It's not wrong, can be useful on occasion, is used frequently by some literary writers, but best avoided for general writing. You are making a purely stylistic suggestion, so this is completely subjective, but in my subjective opinion, the proposed fix is a net negative. The writing in the article is very good, and generally speaking, the usage of commas is spot on throughout, in my opinion. But FWIW I did actually have to stop to parse one sentence that needed a comma to signal the intended meaning of the sentence. I wouldn't have even considered posting on the topic of commas were this thread not here, so, apologies. I read the whole thing again twice, and couldn't find the sentence I tripped on, but I found a couple of examples to make my point, which is that the main reasons to care about commas are the non-stylistic scenarios where adding a comma changes the meaning of the sentence. > Even so, no matter who advises you and no matter how insistent they are in the end the decisions are yours and yours alone and if there is a conflict between the direction that you think the company should go in or if there is second guessing of your decisions in the end your word is the one that matters. This could easily be read: > no matter how insistent they are in the end, the decisions are yours But you probably were thinking: > no matter how insistent they are, in the end the decisions are yours Another one: > If you are both a shareholder and a CEO note that these are two different roles Since there's a condition followed by a suggestion, I would expect a separator between the clauses. > If you are both a shareholder and a CEO, note that these are two different roles
- raarts 11y ago
  I guessed you were dutch, glad I was right. Now I'm really interested in who this post is about. Hope it's not me!
- alexashka 11y ago
  You're still missing it - the crucial point is 'you had nothing to say, it was a rant'. If you think the internet is a soapbox for you to vent your frustrations out and have people go 'yeah, me too', then you don't need to change anything at all. If your intent was to actually give meaningful advice, then you could start with giving credentials for what qualifies you to be giving CEOs advice, followed by sharp, concise bullet points - since CEOs don't have the time to read pages of text.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    > You're still missing it - the crucial point is 'you had nothing to say, it was a rant'. Ah ok. > If you think the internet is a soapbox for you to vent your frustrations out and have people go 'yeah, me too', then you don't need to change anything at all. I don't think that was the gist of it, yes, it was partially written out of frustration but at the same time my inbox seems to indicate that you're the one that is missing the point here. > If your intent was to actually give meaningful advice, then you could start with giving credentials for what qualifies you to be giving CEOs advice If you actually are the CEO of a company you no doubt already know that my credentials don't matter even a little bit, in the end the only thing that matters is what your own counsel will tell you. And that's one of the key points there: it doesn't matter who you trust, you should verify whatever it is that you take into consideration. > since CEOs don't have the time to read pages of text. That's going to be tough then when the time comes to sign some important contract. Guess what, I've actually heard that excuse. Just like another poster here already commented: if you don't like it feel free to write your own version and link it, I'll be happy to vote it up.
    - alexashka 11y ago
      There'll come a time when you realize the extent of how wrong you are, enjoy the 'me too's in your mailbox in the meantime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum
      - jacquesm 11y ago
- santiagobasulto 11y ago
  OMG. I just saw this waterfall of comments (stupid HN doesn't have notifications or anything). I'm sorry Jacques, I didn't want to offend you. And it's great if you're not a native english speaker, your english must be really good! I don't remember why I said that at the moment. I guess I'll read it again.
EdwardDiego 11y ago
Feel free to link to your own, better written, content then.
nickpsecurity 11y ago
He's advocating a combination of ethics, following the law, playing it kind of safe, following financial obligations, and giving a shit about human beings. What made you think American on the first guess? You have a lot to learn about business practices in an imperialist, capitalist country. Do more research. Note: To be clear, I'm an American saying this from vantage of all the evil shit I see in my business news on daily basis. The above points would make me guess European or Nordic before American. "jacques" would make me guess French or French/Canadian.
alexashka 11y ago
I'm a bit sad to see these types of responses downvoted since this is exactly how I myself feel. If you thought that was worthwhile reading - have a look at Ben Horotitz' book - it's much more dense and full of actionable advice.

jacquesm 11y ago

I think that if you believe that I'm American that's probably the best compliment I could get. Writing is hard for me, and this is not my native language, but I'll take your criticism to heart and I'll try to tighten up the text. Thank you for your feedback, greetings from NL.

skannamalai 11y ago
As an American, I will say I wish my response would have been as classy as yours.
pbhjpbhj 11y ago
FWIW he doesn't claim you're American, he claims Americans do something and then claims that thing is also done in the OP. Your response is gracious nonetheless. Some people really like longform writing though, the more meandering and reflective the better. Each has its place IMO.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  You are right, and it appears that even reading is hard ;)
StavrosK 11y ago
Hey Jacques, reading your post, I initially have a piece of advice: Use more commas, it helps the flow along. Currently it reads a bit urgently, here are some examples: > what bothers me is that in many of these cases the company is much sicker than it has to be, the wounds are to a large extent self inflicted and if only someone had had the presence of mind to change direction when it was still possible the company might have survived Better punctuation: > what bothers me is that, in many of these cases, the company is much sicker than it has to be. The wounds are, to a large extent, self-inflicted, and, if only someone had had the presence of mind to change direction when it was still possible, the company might have survived. Also, I, too, would appreciate an email with context, as something feels missing now.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Hehe, previously people told me to use less commas... Ok. Will drop you a line.
  - kybernetikos 11y ago
    Please don't take the previous advice uncritically. A good few of the suggested commas are jarring. I thought your text read very well.
    - jacquesm 11y ago
      I'm open to further corrections, how would you write that sentence? (I did the best I could on the original, if I could have done better I would have but punctuation is hard (and quotes are the hardest, for some reason)).
    - StavrosK 11y ago
      The suggested commas are jarring because the sentence is jarring. If I could rewrite the entire sentence, it would be more like this: > what bothers me is that, in many of these cases, the company is much sicker than it has to be. The wounds are largely self-inflicted, and the company might have survived if only someone had had the presence of mind to change direction when it was still possible.
- lttlrck 11y ago
  Sorry but I much prefer the flow of the original. Misplaced and overuse of commas interrupt flow.
- dahart 11y ago
  Personally, I think the proposed second example is too many commas, and does not improve the text. It adds a halting and pedantic feeling style to put 'and' in a clause by itself, for example, and arguably bad to separate 'self-inflicted' from 'largely'. It's not wrong, can be useful on occasion, is used frequently by some literary writers, but best avoided for general writing. You are making a purely stylistic suggestion, so this is completely subjective, but in my subjective opinion, the proposed fix is a net negative. The writing in the article is very good, and generally speaking, the usage of commas is spot on throughout, in my opinion. But FWIW I did actually have to stop to parse one sentence that needed a comma to signal the intended meaning of the sentence. I wouldn't have even considered posting on the topic of commas were this thread not here, so, apologies. I read the whole thing again twice, and couldn't find the sentence I tripped on, but I found a couple of examples to make my point, which is that the main reasons to care about commas are the non-stylistic scenarios where adding a comma changes the meaning of the sentence. > Even so, no matter who advises you and no matter how insistent they are in the end the decisions are yours and yours alone and if there is a conflict between the direction that you think the company should go in or if there is second guessing of your decisions in the end your word is the one that matters. This could easily be read: > no matter how insistent they are in the end, the decisions are yours But you probably were thinking: > no matter how insistent they are, in the end the decisions are yours Another one: > If you are both a shareholder and a CEO note that these are two different roles Since there's a condition followed by a suggestion, I would expect a separator between the clauses. > If you are both a shareholder and a CEO, note that these are two different roles
raarts 11y ago
I guessed you were dutch, glad I was right. Now I'm really interested in who this post is about. Hope it's not me!
alexashka 11y ago
You're still missing it - the crucial point is 'you had nothing to say, it was a rant'. If you think the internet is a soapbox for you to vent your frustrations out and have people go 'yeah, me too', then you don't need to change anything at all. If your intent was to actually give meaningful advice, then you could start with giving credentials for what qualifies you to be giving CEOs advice, followed by sharp, concise bullet points - since CEOs don't have the time to read pages of text.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  > You're still missing it - the crucial point is 'you had nothing to say, it was a rant'. Ah ok. > If you think the internet is a soapbox for you to vent your frustrations out and have people go 'yeah, me too', then you don't need to change anything at all. I don't think that was the gist of it, yes, it was partially written out of frustration but at the same time my inbox seems to indicate that you're the one that is missing the point here. > If your intent was to actually give meaningful advice, then you could start with giving credentials for what qualifies you to be giving CEOs advice If you actually are the CEO of a company you no doubt already know that my credentials don't matter even a little bit, in the end the only thing that matters is what your own counsel will tell you. And that's one of the key points there: it doesn't matter who you trust, you should verify whatever it is that you take into consideration. > since CEOs don't have the time to read pages of text. That's going to be tough then when the time comes to sign some important contract. Guess what, I've actually heard that excuse. Just like another poster here already commented: if you don't like it feel free to write your own version and link it, I'll be happy to vote it up.
  - alexashka 11y ago
    There'll come a time when you realize the extent of how wrong you are, enjoy the 'me too's in your mailbox in the meantime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum
    - jacquesm 11y ago
santiagobasulto 11y ago
OMG. I just saw this waterfall of comments (stupid HN doesn't have notifications or anything). I'm sorry Jacques, I didn't want to offend you. And it's great if you're not a native english speaker, your english must be really good! I don't remember why I said that at the moment. I guess I'll read it again.

EdwardDiego 11y ago

Feel free to link to your own, better written, content then.

nickpsecurity 11y ago

He's advocating a combination of ethics, following the law, playing it kind of safe, following financial obligations, and giving a shit about human beings. What made you think American on the first guess? You have a lot to learn about business practices in an imperialist, capitalist country. Do more research. Note: To be clear, I'm an American saying this from vantage of all the evil shit I see in my business news on daily basis. The above points would make me guess European or Nordic before American. "jacques" would make me guess French or French/Canadian.

alexashka 11y ago

I'm a bit sad to see these types of responses downvoted since this is exactly how I myself feel. If you thought that was worthwhile reading - have a look at Ben Horotitz' book - it's much more dense and full of actionable advice.