What book should I read next? I have a goal of reading 50 books every year. Last yesr I did 68 and the previous year I read 61. This year, I'm behind, need 21 more to achieve my goal. I read 30% fiction and I have 10 more fiction books picked out. No fiction suggestions please. My 3 lifetime top favourites are 3. Atomic Habits ~ James Clear 2. Think Like a Monk ~ Jay Shetty 1. The 5AM Club ~ Robin Sharma Looking forward to suggestions!

Santa Mike's Christmas Wish came true on Saturday. He got to fly on a helicopter. He finally saw the English countryside in daylight; not like on Christmas Eve deliveries. https://youtu.be/s-53srDYmdQ

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Great questions from Bob to encourage people to talk about themselves. Will you spot the one that's not actually a question? - “How did you get your start in the [widget] business?” - “What do you enjoy most about your profession?” - “What separates you and your company from the competition?” - “What advice would you give someone just starting in the [widget] business?” - “What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?” - “What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?” - “What do you see as the coming trends in your industry?” - “Describe the strangest or funniest incident you’ve experienced in your business?” - “What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?” - “What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?”

Don't you notice it when a piece of writing suddenly shows itself up as being AI generated? I think we all do, and it kinda hacks me off. If someone uses AI to help draft a post, an article or a form, they should make sure to completely "humanise" the result. Or create an instruction set to ensure that the AI will "Do the thing" the way that "the writer" would do it. As Michael mentioned in the Village a few weeks back, the language of the LLMs derives in part from classic books and scholarly papers. So, AI "utilises" things that we would "use" and chooses an em dash, etc. As Churchill said, “Short words are best, and the old words when short are best of all.” When I asked ChatGPT about this, they agreed and offered up a nice corollary from Strunk and White. “Avoid fancy words. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready, and able.” Of course, being ChatGPT, they provided several more quotes ranging from Mark Twain to George Orwell and offered me versions "in my own Santa voice". Here they are: 1. Warm & Wise (LinkedIn-style) 🎅 “Santa’s tip for clearer talk: short, everyday words carry more weight than long, fancy ones. Keep it simple, keep it kind.” 2. Playful & Light (X/Twitter-style) 🎅 “Santa says: skip the sesquipedalian spectacles. Short words sparkle brighter.” 3. Family-Friendly (Instagram-style) 🎅✨ “Big words don’t make big magic. Small, simple ones do. Ho ho ho!” 4. S.A.N.T.A. Tie-in (for business posts) 🎅 “Show Appreciation with simple words. A thank-you said plainly shines brighter than a speech stuffed with syllables.” I am ridiculously fond of "Santa says: skip the sesquipedalian spectacles."