Scrutiny

Maybe they’re not clueless.

Maybe your idea’s just not clear.

Or not good.

Or both.

Communication isn’t telepathy.

If nobody gets it, it might not be them.

Is It Me or Is It a Machine?

 

If you write a decent sentence these days, people suspect you of being a machine. A focused, well-written paragraph is potential evidence of artificial intelligence, and using an em-dash may as well be a confession.

The deluge of AI produced writing has made us suspicious of prose itself. When people know that writing can be generated by a non-human, they can use that uncertainty to deny even authentic evidence. A thoughtful essay can be dismissed as AI generated. A personal story can be accused of being manufactured. An argument can be waved away because it sounds a little too polished, as if clarity were a crime scene and good grammar the getaway car.

We already live in a world where people read headlines instead of articles and scan opinions for ammunition. Now we have another convenient excuse not to engage with something we dislike: it can be dismissed as artificial ... no need to answer the argument, just blame the algorithm and move along. Marking something as "AI" becomes a convenient excuse for tossing it in a trash can for inconvenient ideas.

Personally, I’m less interested in whether a human or a machine assembled a sentence than whether the sentence has something worth saying. Who wrote it matters, certainly. But so do honesty, originality, experience, and the willingness to say something that hasn’t been polished into meaninglessness.

Me? I’ll keep writing. I’ll use the words I want to use and include the occasional em-dash. And I’ll try not to confuse polish with wisdom or awkwardness with authenticity.

And if someone decides that my writing sounds too much like AI, I guess I’ll have to live with that.

I spent years learning to write well. It would be a shame to stop just because the machines have caught up with the grammar and punctuation.

7 lines to use to pick up a copywriter in a bar

 

Are you a headline? Because you have my full attention.


Are you a keyboard? Because you're just my type.


Are you a trending topic? Because you've got me engaged.


Are you a brand story? Because I feel emotionally connected to you.


Are you a meta description? Because you just summed up everything I've been looking for.


Are you an engagement metric? Because you're driving my interest way up.


Are you organic traffic? Because I didn't see you coming, but I'm glad you're here.

Ya gotta market yourself

Marketing yourself and selling your services can be incredibly stressful. 

You're not alone.

Here are a dozen videos that can inject a little fun into the process. Hopefully this will help lighten the load the next time you have to bust out of your comfort zone and ask a prospect or client to make a commitment to buy your services.

Tommy Boy: We Don’t Take No for an Answer

The Office: Our Prices Have Never Been Lower

Key and Peele: The Telemarketer (Uncensored)

Used Cars: Fishing For Customers

Best Sales Lesson Ever: Jeremy Piven

Alec Baldwin Glengarry Glen Ross Speech

Key and Peele: Bagels are for Sales Associates (Uncensored) 

Robert DeNiro: Mob Boss Car Salesperson

The Wolf of Wall Street: Best Sales Pitch

Boiler Room: Daily News

Saturday Night Live: PowerPoint

Mad Men: Don Draper’s Best Sales Pitch Ever