Who?I’m a software engineer and entrepreneur focused on modern web technologies and AI.
Here's an ongoing autobiography, which also shares the story of my by-the-bootstraps "unschooling" education: now the subject of a chapter on grit and resilience in the bestselling book Mindshift by Barbara Oakley.
An angel investor once described my core soft skill in the role of founder or early team member as: "The ability to perceive exactly what needs to be done. And then to do it."
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In the past, I coined the term "Startup Cities" as co-founder of StartupCities.org and a startup spinoff, both of which focused on why startups should build cities. I now write about Startup Cities at StartupCities.com
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This Cheesy Johnny Cash Love Letter is a Masterclass in Clear Writing
2 Lessons from the Legendary Songwriter
Each Valentine's Day, a short love letter written by Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash goes viral. The letter is only two paragraphs long. Here it is with the "Dear" and "Sincerely" removed:
We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each others minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.
But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You're the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence. I love you very much.
There's no doubt that the letter is sweet. But let's take a closer look at what makes this little note so powerful.
First, sentence length. There are ten sentences in the letter. On average, there's only ~10 words per sentence. If we remove the one long outlier ("But once in awhile..."), the average falls to ~7. In his pursuit of short sentences, Cash was willing to break the rules. He splits "Sometimes we irritate" from the phrase that follows ("Maybe sometimes..."), though the second isn't even a complete sentence.
Brevity makes each sentence sing. The staccato of the many short sentences also makes the long outlier sentence stand out. The difference in length and the appositive "like today" contrasts with the sentences that precede it. This works brilliantly, because Cash contrasts his everyday frame of mind with days "like today".
Second, let's look at word choice. The letter is sparse in adjectives. We have "old", "alike", "little", "lucky", "greatest". Not many. And none that we would call fancy "$10 words". The only adverb is "Earthly". Cash builds most sentences around a single simple verb. We think. We read. We know. We irritate. We take each other for granted.
Cash speaks in the "Royal We" for the letter's first half. He doesn't use "you" until nearly the end. Consider how much weaker the first mention of "you" would sound if he built on adjectives rather than verbs:
Original: "You fascinate and inspire me."
Adjectives: "You are fascinating and inspiring."
The gerund "-ing" forms just don't punch as hard.
Cash's love letter avoids being hopelessly cheesy through the strength of his writing. But I guess that's why he's a legendary songwriter.
