Massless

The guessers.

I'm thinking today about poor quality punditry and the high-pitched tone I'm seeing constantly as well as the pressure (succumbed to commonly) to be the first to guess.

"I'm done with...", "Looks like...", "We believe...", "Others speculate that...", etc.*

No data, no verification, and no substance then you should offer something else substantive, I think. Now even though the throwing down of virtual gauntlets is always funny (and I like passion) it may well be a signal your writing comes from balancing a chalkboard on your jerking knee while sailing an uneven emotional sea.

I dunno - are you happy asserting speculation as fact without sufficient data? Willfully attaching context without merit? Why not try a more measured analysis? Isn't it more interesting to offer fact-based criticism since there's a net benefit for everyone? I'm finding that tons of it exist.

Looking back, what did data-poor reporters accomplish? They speculated, guessed. They whispered maybes. Speculation is fun, sure, but it's just sport and one without even the pageantry of uniforms. And there seem to be a lot of poor players in the league lately.**

*My response to recent tech examples: You know who's great? Yahoo! They have an incredible, exciting direction - and they're a dancing elephant as well. How many companies simultaneously expand and turn their strategy on heads of pins? Too many great things to name here: there's an excellent Search engine and then there's Flickr, del.icio.us, upcoming.org, the mail beta, YPN, their international presence, and many, many other superlative efforts.

**You do too like sport metaphors. Search your soul.

posted at January 26, 2006, 5:16 PM