Author Archives: Tom McKay

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace. “Making the complicated awesomely simple… that’s creativity.” Charles Mingus

I’m getting pretty weary of Blogger’s many limitations and, uh, eccentricities (Can you say “bugs?”) In the previous post (below), for example, I must have tried to format the color of my bullet list about 15 times, but no matter how I selected them, those first two bullet points would not turn yellow. Got it […]

Simplify doesn’t mean “dumb down”. It means your memos, presentations and other businesss documents should only be as technical as they need to be depending on your audience. Obviously, if you’re writing or speaking to engineers, you can safely assume a certain level of technical competence — although you might be surprised at how many […]

Any effective communication requires answering two basic questions before you start to write: Who are you trying to communicate with? What are you trying to get them to do? Then tailor your memo, email or other message so they — your intended audience — understand it. That last bit is where many companies fail, especially […]

“The three most important elements in any speech are: brevity, levity, and repetition. Let me say that again: brevity, levity, and repetition.” Daniel Pink, author, Free Agent Nation, at a 2005 commencement address If he’d sat down right after that, it would (theoretically) have been a perfect speech.

Do you have notes jotted everywhere? I know I do. As a full-time writer, ideas are my bread and butter, and I hate letting any of them slip away. Consequently, I’ve got ideas scribbled on Post-Its, yellow pads, my PDA, digital voice recorder and some Backpack pages. And let’s not even mention the thousands of […]

In my previous post I had a mild rant about waiving tolls on the Maine Turnpike. But our neighbor to the South, New Hampshire, just pulled a toll increase — without raising prices. Huh? How? New Hampshire no longer accepts its own tokens for tolls. Now riders have to pay a buck each way, instead […]