I like pens. I’m a Moleskine fan (yeah, one of those guys), and I like having writing utensils that match the class of that surface. I’ve been doing some research regarding what I should replace my current pen with, and here’s what I have so far.

Current Pen

So, I currently write with a modified Pilot G2 with a fine point Monte Blanc refill. It’s a solid writing implement, but it wears out quickly. Besides, the main thing you get with Monte Blanc is the pen itself, not so much the ink (or so it would seem).

Potential Replacements

So the question is what to replace it with.

Option 1: Fisher Space Pen, Fine Point

I carry a Fisher Space Pen as my main pen to accompany my Hipster PDA. But I use the medium point, as I’ve never replaced a cartridge. So I’m going to try out a fine point with the pen you see pictured above.

Option 2: Pilot Precise V5

These get extremely high reviews, and I’ve used them many times over the years. I may end up going back to them for Moleskine use if I can’t find anything better. I use the extra fine version.

Option 3: Signo 207 Premier

This gets stellar reviews, but I’ve not used it. I’m thinking about picking one up soon.

Option 4: Mechanical Pencil

The other option is for me to investigate using pencil instead of pen with my Moleskines. Intriguing proposition…

Input

So what do you guys think? Are any of you pen freaks? Have a favorite? Have a preference for pencil instead of pen when taking notes? I’d love to hear any input. ::

They’re freakin’ paragraphs in and of themselves, and it’s funny as hell to listen to the NPR folks try to get through them without stumbling–especially right before a break.

So here’s one I thought of for myself:

The Perilous Road to Simplicity in the Age of an Overly Verbose World: The 14 Steps to Navigating the High Seas of Creating a Concise Book Title

In the spirit of improving my debating skills (both written and oral) I’m setting out on a short project to learn, re-familiarize, and remind myself to build sound arguments. Of all the tutorials on doing this I’ve found, I like this one from Purdue the most, and I’ll be using it to construct this short primer that I’ll probably end up converting to a study article.

Let’s start with philosophypages’ definition of an argument:

An argument is a set of two or more propositions related to each other in such a way that all but one of them (the premises) are supposed to provide support for the remaining one (the conclusion).

And then some definitions:

• logic: the study of the distinction between correct and incorrect reasoning
• proposition: a statement that is declared by a declarative statement that can either be true or false. Also commonly referred to as a claim
• premise: a statement whos truth is used to infer that of others. Think of this as a building block for an argument, or a link in a chain with the last link being your conclusion
• inference: the relationship that holds between the premises and the conclusion of a logical argument, or the process of drawing a conclusion from premises that support it deductively or inductively
• conclusion: a proposition whose truth has been inferred on the basis of other propositions assembled with it in a logical argument

The transition or movement from premises to conclusion, the logical connection between them, is the inference upon which the argument relies.¹

There are two main types of argument: deductive, and inductive. I like about.com’s explanation of the two:²

A deductive argument is one in which it is impossible for the premises to be true but the conclusion false. Thus, the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises and inferences. In this way, it is supposed to be a definitive proof of the truth of the claim (conclusion). Here is a classic example:

Or, in other words: the truth of the premises is supposed to guarantee the truth of the conclusion.

1. All men are mortal. (premise)
2. Socrates was a man. (premise)
3. Socrates was mortal. (conclusion)

An inductive argument is one in which the premises are supposed to support the conclusion in such a way that if the premises are true, it is improbable that the conclusion would be false. Thus, the conclusion follows probably from the premises and inferences. Here is an example:

Or in other words: the truth of the premises merely makes it probable that the conclusion is true.

1. Socrates was Greek. (premise)
2. Most Greeks eat fish. (premise)
3. Socrates ate fish. (conclusion)

Basic Structure

First, a definition:

An argument involves the process of establishing a claim and then proving it with the use of logical reasoning, examples, and research.

Which gets organized like so:

• Title
• Introduction
  • Thesis statement
• Body Paragraphs
  • Constructing Topic Sentences
  • Building Main Points
  • Countering the Opposition
• Conclusion

Title

Just as with any writing, it’s important to make a first impression. For an argument that has a form appropriate for the use of title (formal oral or written), this is the opportunity to make that first impression.

• Puns
• Humor
• Using words or examples from the main argument to be found later
• Asking a question
• Avoid clichés
• Don’t be boring

Introduction

The key with the intro is to smoothly slide into your argument while appearing to entertain–unless of course you’re doing some sort of strict or formal deal, at which point you can take the line of, “in this argument I intend to show”, etc. etc. But most arguments don’t happen in this fashion, so I’m going to cover the natural form.

Consider these as openers:

• personal anecdote
• a nifty quote
• shocking stats (the more solid the better, of course)
• an image that will prompt a reaction
• a question

Regardless of how you set it up, the main point is to blend naturally into your main argument, which is defined by your thesis statement.

Your Thesis

This statement basically frames the entire argument. It’s critical that you are very careful with it, as you will be defending it for the rest of the talk, paper, debate, etc.

The thesis is what you are trying to convince the readers/listeners of. It is not a fact; it’s a proposition (also known as “declarative sentence”) that has to be proven by your forthcoming argument.

Supporting Paragraphs

Just as you were taught in high school to do with essays, we support arguments (which an essay basically is) by using body paragraphs. These give support to your primary claim made in your introduction / thesis.

The strongest support often comes from well-respected data on the topic you’re discussing, e.g. data from large, well-done studies, solid polling data (if you’re discussing opinion), etc. The key is to have the data come from a source that is least exposed to scrutiny due to small sample sizes, faulty methodologies, or bias.

Addressing the Counterarugument

Your argument will face opposition; it’s up to you to figure out exactly what shape that resistance will take, and to adequately handle it preemptively at various points within your supporting paragraphs.

Be careful to approach these counterarguments with respect, and to form a significant attack on your own idea when addressing the counterarguments. To stand up a weaker version of the real counter, only to knock it down with ease, will cause many to dismiss your entire effort outright.

Also try to avoid rude, hostile, or deprecating language when addressing counterpoints; this tactic can easily result in the audience that you most care about (those who disagree with you) ignoring your argument due to adverse emotional reaction.

Conclusion

The conclusion should basically restate your originial proposition (claim), and then lay out the support you have given to it. You can slightly restate your claim, but avoid adding any additional claims–as these too would require their own support.

References

¹ [ Arguments and Inference | philosophypages.com ]
² [ Deductive Reasoning | wikipedia.org ]

I took the serious risk of correcting a friend today (privately, via Twitter DM) in regard to his use of “their/they’re”, and “your/you’re”. I told him, “s/your/you’re/ – s/thats/that’s. Believe it or not, English matters a lot to some people.”

In retrospect I should have added a smiley face or something, so as to counter any Internet-generated harshness that might have been added to the text. I actually rewrote my comment like five times to try and find the right tone, but I figured that since we communicate often it would be seen for what it was, i.e. a “heads up” regarding how others perceive things. Here’s what I got back.

WTF dude if I wanted an English lesson I would pay tuition.

Nice. So I wrote him a note that I think will serve well as a universal response to such reactions from friends, and I’ve included it below.

–

I was trying to be helpful by informing you, as a friend, of something that could be hurting you in the eyes of other people. Your choice of how to respond was, in my opinion, a poor one. But since that’s the language you’d like to use, the goal was not to give you an English lesson; it was to tell you privately, and in as kind a way possible, that you look like a fucking dumbass when you publicly demonstrate that you do not have a solid grasp of the English language.

If I thought, by the way, that you actually DIDN’T KNOW the difference between “there” and “their” or “your” and “you’re” I might actually send you a tutorial or something, but I know that for you it’s just a matter of laziness. Quite simply, you don’t think it matters that much if you use the right word or not, and that’s the misconception that I wanted to address. It’s not about correcting your English–it’s about correcting your perception of what others think is important. In short, you don’t think people care, but they actually do. For many people poor English instantly removes your credibility–despite any quality that may exist in your message.

And here’s the worst part: they won’t tell you. They’ll just internally label you an idiot, make fun of you behind your back, and proceed to ignore anything you do in the future (even if it’s cool).

So there are two main ways to hear about this: a) you can get flamed publicly in some Internet forum (which you’ll just ignore), or b) a friend can do their best to tell you politely, and in private. The thing is, most friends won’t because they’d rather not offend someone they care about. So, people like me who see our friends doing this are torn: do we tell them and become the asshat Grammar Nazi, or do we let them continue to look foolish because we’re too pussy to say anything?

With you I chose the former, and you reacted in precisely the way that makes friends reluctant to help. I ask you to reconsider. I’m not the asshole for telling you this; the real asshole is the one who watches you make the mistake, winces when you do it, but lacks the balls to say anything. ::

[ The cold hard facts of freezing to death | outside.away.com ]

I recently came up with a concept called Content Potential, which I define as the maximum level of popularity your site/brand can reach based on the quality of your content.

As a bit of background, I believe there are basically two elements to one’s popularity online:

1. Content quality
   • Approachability
   • Humorous/Unique Perspective
   • Clarity
   • Depth
2. Exposure level
   • Marketing via various outlets
   • Leveraging of social networks
   • Differentiating pushing vs. spamming
   • Optimizing for viral dissemination

Each of these reduce further, of course, and much can be/has been written about such details, but these are the basics. In short, in order to be popular online (applies everywhere, really) you have to both have a good message and get people to hear it.

The idea of Content Potential is that content is still primary, and it will become even more so as social networks like Twitter become more mainstream and easy to use. This is because social networks will make it far less likely that desirable content will go undiscovered.

As this happens, failures to gain popularity will be increasingly due to a lack of strong content as opposed to a lack of exposure.

Example: let’s say I create a new blog post and Tweet about it. If the content is strong at least a few of those following me will propagate the content via one means or another, e.g. a retweet, a save to their social bookmarks, a linkback through their own blog, or a submission/vote up on their favorite social content site like Digg or Reddit.

The stronger the content, the less likely that this will not occur. Or, to put it another way, as the size of your social network grows, so do the chances that any content you create of notable quality will be promoted throughout the networks.

So, if you don’t have many readers at this point you have one of two problems:

1. You have poor content
2. You have good content, but you aren’t marketing it well

As the speed and efficiency of social networking grows, however, it will become less and less due to lack of exposure and more due to lack of content. In short, social networks are allowing us to more quickly reach our Content Potential by efficiently discovering and promoting any content worth consuming. ::

Here’s a brilliant collection of six-word stories from Wired.

Here’s Hemmingway’s famous one:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

And here’s another of my favorites, by David Brin:

Vacuum collision. Orbits diverge. Farewell, love.

Definitely worth the time.

[ Six Word Stories | Wired.com ]

I’ve come to a realization recently. Few things are more important to a modern geek than being efficient with keyboard shortcuts. This applies to both their main operating system and their applications, but especially within the context of their primary text editor. For anyone doing writing or programming I think these skills are absolutely vital.

To me the difference between having these skills and not having them is every bit as stark as being able to touch-type vs. not being able to. Sure, one can be a great writer or programmer, or tech-whatever without being able to touch-type, but it’s infinitely more difficult.

I’m going to learn to touch-type, and my editor is TextMate. ::

My good friend Jason Powell has finally, after much prodding, put up his own website. He’s located at jasonthomaspowell.com. His middle name is Thomas.

…

Anyway, Jason is one of the best writers that I know, and he has helped me greatly along my path as a writer over the years. He introduced me to the Strunk and White book, for one thing, and has exposed me to countless other fundamentals that I might still be struggling with were it not for him.

So, I’m happy today to see him with his own place to share ideas.

With that I’ll leave you his first post, which I think you’ll agree is well-written, about a topic he feels passionate about–the value of possessions.

[ The Start of Me Talking About Stuff | jasonthomaspowell.com ]