Personal Development for Smart People^TM

Virtually every week I receive reader feedback that could be generalized to the following template:

Steve,

I’ve been a long-time reader of your blog now and have found [ a few | some | several | many | most ] of your insights very helpful.  I am not normally one to criticize, but I feel compelled to say something, as lately I feel your writings have taken a wrong turn.

Your articles on [ productivity | sprituality | philosophy | organization | business | sleep | motivation | metaphysics | purpose | career | self-discipline | success | time management | passion | inner peace | sex (I’ve never written about this topic!) ] have been [ great | wonderful | terrific ], and they’ve helped me a lot.  However, lately you’ve begun writing about [ productivity | sprituality | philosophy | organization | business | sleep | motivation | metaphysics | purpose | career | self-discipline | success | time management | passion | inner peace | sex ], which I feel is too [ capitalistic | new-agey | airy-fairy | money-oriented | philosophical | analytical | emotional | ungrounded | specific | personal | impersonal | Western | Eastern | Christian | atheistic | controversial | neutered ], and I feel this new direction is negatively affecting the quality of your blog.  I also feel you are far less qualified to write about [ topic # 2 ] as compared to [ topic #1 ].

I think you should reconsider your new direction and go back to writing on [ topic #1 ].  That is clearly your strength, and to me you have a lot more credibility and valuable insights on [ topic #1 ] than you do on [ topic #2 ].

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you’ve [ taken a wrong turn | fallen off track | gone a bit wacko ] here and need a little [ constructive criticism | gentle reminder | kick in the pants | colonoscopy ] to return to your roots.

Side-by-side with those emails, I receive others that follow this template:

Steve,

I’ve been a long-time reader of your blog now and have found [ a few | some | several | many | most ] of your insights to be [ pretty good | excellent | cool | groovy | nonpareil | admirable | stimulating | 1337 ].  However, lately I’ve noticed you’ve begun writing about [ productivity | sprituality | philosophy | organization | business | sleep | motivation | metaphysics | purpose | career | self-discipline | success | time management | passion | sex (huh?) ], especially in your article “[ name of article which isn’t always one of mine ].”  I can’t tell you what a [ wonderful | enormous | major | freakin’ huge | arousing ] impact your new direction has had on me.  Just the other day I was thinking about [ topic #2 ], and [ this morning | this evening | after flushing ] I visit your blog and see you writing something that seems too coincidental to believe.

I know you must receive a lot of email, but I feel I must tell you what a [ powerful | amazing | diarrhetic ] effect your recent writings have had on me personally.

[ Insert usually-very-lengthy-but-delightful-to-read personal story of overcoming obstacles | raising awareness | increasing productivity | quitting the day job | launching a new business | starting/finishing a new project | joining a gym | falling in love | finding one’s true calling | going vegetarian | enjoying wild sex (What am I missing here???) ]

Thank you again for having the courage to share your wonderful new direction.  It is obvious from your writings that you are a fellow [ atheist | agnostic | Christian | Buddhist | Hindu | Muslim | Wiccan | vegetarian | capitalist | peace-lover | Freemason | child of light | truth seeker | psychologist | speaker | athlete | educator | (insert name of obscure writer I’ve never heard of) fan | entrepreneur | pick up artist ], which is probably what draws me to your site.  I hope to see a lot more from you on this topic in the future, especially if you can eventually take the time to address [ specific subtopic ].

I think email #2 would make for an effective reply to email #1, and vice versa. And now I can reply to both emails with a link to this post.

Edit 5:30pm: This post is meant to be humorous and was written in the spirit of jest, so try not to take it too seriously. I appreciate any and all feedback, even when it tends to be of a conflicting nature. I know I need to return to writing about sex — I’m working on it, but the research must come first.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2005 at 7:00 am and is filed under General, Humor, Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.