Recently, I came across a Twitter spat. A ghostwriter, claiming to be one of the world’s best, accused one of his colleagues of plagiarism. According to him, he either copied his words verbatim, or swiped his general concepts. Now, since these are people who (also) make money giving others advice, these sort of accusations are no laughing matter.
So, what are we talking about here? What trade secrets had the man stolen? Brace yourself: “Specificity is the secret” and “Be clear, not clever.”
Now, let’s take a moment to fully appreciate this. Anyone who’s written for more than three days, should be able to tell you this is standard, decades-old wisdom. Nothing new here. In response, one writer after another laughed in his face, simply because of the audacity of claiming standard wisdom as one’s own.
To make matters worse, our ghostwriter tried to defend himself in the comment section. He presented an advertising example, how it wouldn’t be right to present a certain strategy, without making clear who first came up with it. Sure, one could make an argument for that, only problem is, he blundered picking his example. Without going into too much detail, it felt like a DJ saying, “And now we’ll play Bohemian Rhapsody, by Madonna.” Surely at that point, you’ve lost all credibility.
Why make such a mistake? Well, I put it down to one word: superficiality. This man skims the material, but doesn’t engage with it in any meaningful way – just enough to use the right words and throw out a couple of famous names to impress his audience. And that might be plenty, if social status and guruhood is all you care about.
This brings us to the story of the submarine, imploding near the Titanic. You might have read the articles, in which the CEO showed a blatant disregard for safety. He wouldn’t hire fifty-year-old guys for example. According to him, because they didn’t seem inspiring enough. Their slightly higher salary might also have been a contributing factor.
How shallow. It brings to mind our aforementioned ghostwriter. Both are very superficial. These types usually love motivational quotes, such as “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve!”— most are oblivious to the fact that this quote originates from a con artist, according to a certain Medium article. Now, let me beat you to it: sure, as far as catchphrases go, it’s uplifting. But when you think on it any longer than a few seconds, you should realize it’s not much better than singing, “I believe I can fly!”.
The same goes for other clichéd management mantras, “Hire for attitude, train for skills!”. Again, it’s catchy and it sticks. But what happens when you apply it without much thought? Disaster. A submarine imploding near the Titanic. Anyone with half a brain knows the twenty-five year old doesn’t have the same life experience as the fifty year old.
Experience often has to be earned the hard way. Alas, shortcuts are rare. Suppose I tell you of the dangers of swimming in the open sea. Even if you take me at my word, the only way of really knowing, is to go for a swim, go a little further than you’d normally would and feel the massive force of the waves pick up your body.
So, looking down on the group of fifty year olds, the CEO did himself a disservice. If you have any sense: keep a handful of them around, even if it’s just to warn you before you’re about to screw up. And of course, you’d have to be willing to listen, but that’s an issue for another time.
In conclusion, all of this should serve as a warning against becoming shallow thinkers. We need to question our own assumptions and thoughts constantly. Have you ever noticed how, when you listen to someone, you catch a hole in their reasoning? Well, we should realize we’re not much better ourselves! All of us walk around with the equivalent of a badly designed submarine somewhere in our lives. Let’s start looking, before it implodes! Food for thought!
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet
PS I also believe it’s important to keep looking for both the old and the new. Try some 1930s jazz and follow by listening to a new pop song that just came out. Try it all and come to your own conclusions. You are guaranteed to become richer in wisdom.