Media picks, March 2-13

I. Writing skills

1. Checklist: Is this content valuable?

2. Sales writing: You don't really know your customers, unless… you can finish their sentences (e.g., "Submit" to be replaced with "Start my trial").

II. Maker skills

3. BigThink video (2:39 min): Neil deGrasse Tyson' advice.

4. BigThink video (2:34 min): The Common Character Trait of Geniuses (answer: deep focus).

5. Video (2 min): Richard Branson's top 5 tips for becoming an entrepreneur (2012).

III. Voice

6. Pauses & voice modulations in this video (3:56 min). Would love some of the pauses to be longer though.

IV. People skills

7. The practice: Bless.

Blessing does not mean approving; you can wish people well while also disengaging from them.

Fundamentally, blessing means treating another person as a “thou” not an “it,” not a means to your ends. Think of “thou” as a verb. To bless people is to thou them.

8. Video, first 44 seconds: Richard Branson' advice.

9. Quiz: Feeling cared about (pdf). One of the statements to be rated:

I’ve reflected a lot on my childhood, and I have an accurate, well-rounded understanding of the ways that my parents and other key caregivers related to me – especially as a young child – and how this affected me while growing up.