Subject
14 entries
Communication
Bookmarks
How to Write a Cold Email
Sriram Krishnan's guide to writing cold emails that get responses — focused on the fundamentals of making a good ask without wasting the recipient's time. Practical advice from someone on both ends of many cold emails.
There Are Three Types of Meetings
Cam Daigle's framework for classifying every meeting into one of three types — each with distinct preparation and execution norms. A practical mental model for reclaiming sanity in a meeting-heavy work environment.
Texts: Unified Messaging Inbox
Texts is a unified messaging app that combines iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter DMs, Signal, and other messaging platforms into a single inbox. Addresses the fragmentation problem of having conversations scattered across 5+ apps.
Topic-First Meeting Principle
The topic-first meeting principle: schedule a meeting only after a topic that warrants verbal discussion has surfaced, not the reverse. The inversion of standing meetings — the conversation creates the meeting, not the calendar slot creates the conversation topic.
Poised — AI Communication Coach for Online Meetings
Poised is an AI-powered communication coach that analyzes your speech in real time during Zoom, Slack, and Google Meet calls — flagging filler words, speaking pace, eye contact, and confidence signals. Early entrant in the AI meeting intelligence category.
Mappers vs Packers
Ward Cunningham's wiki pattern distinguishing 'Mappers' (who think in connected concepts and structures) from 'Packers' (who think in discrete lists and procedures). A useful lens for diagnosing communication friction in technical teams.
3 Things About Data Science You Won't Find In Books
Three things about data science that don't appear in textbooks — the communication overhead, the 80% time spent on data wrangling, and the organizational politics of getting models deployed. Classic practitioner wisdom from Galvanize/KDnuggets circa 2015.
Why Soft Skills Matter in Data Science
Data Informed piece arguing that communication, curiosity, and domain knowledge matter as much as technical skills in data science — the overlooked half of the job that makes or breaks whether analysis produces decisions.
Why We Hate Infographics (And Why You Should Too)
Qunb's critique of infographics — arguing that most fail because they prioritize visual novelty over clarity, substituting decoration for information. A data visualization purist's case for charts that communicate over charts that impress.
Animated GIF to Be Beamed Into Space
The Verge covered Lone Signal, a project that let anyone beam messages (including animated GIFs) to a star system using a radio telescope in New Jersey. The first animated GIF transmitted into space was a novelty stunt, but Lone Signal was an earnest attempt at crowdsourced SETI.
How to Tell a Story with Data
HBR guide on turning data analysis into effective narrative — the argument that the audience and the story structure matter as much as the data itself. Focus on the message first, then find the visual that delivers it.
We've Reached Peak Infographic, and We're No Smarter for It
Harvard Business Review's 2013 critique of infographic saturation — the observation that visual data presentation had proliferated faster than information quality, producing a flood of pretty charts conveying little actual insight.
The Single Most Unfair Advantage a Person Can Get
Ivan Mazour's blog post arguing that public speaking ability is the single most unfair competitive advantage — it multiplies every other capability, yet most people avoid developing it systematically. A sharp take on asymmetric skill investment.
The Perfect Compliment
Esquire's guide to giving compliments that land — the core insight being that effective compliments are specific, timely, and non-transactional. Generic praise ('you're great') reads as automatic; observed-detail praise ('I noticed how you handled that') reads as genuine.