Monday, March 25, 2024

What March Madness Teaches About Our Biases

With the first week of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament (aka #MarchMadness) in the books, many of you are lamenting your “busted brackets.” Don’t feel bad. An estimated 30 million people painstakingly fill out their tournament picks every year, and there has never been a verified perfect bracket. The closest to perfection came in 2019, when a Columbus, Ohio, resident correctly chose the winners of the first 50 games of the tournament only to see his picks unravel in the Sweet 16 round. For years, billionaire Warren Buffett has offered a $1 billion prize to anyone picking a perfect bracket and he’s never come close to paying out.

Why we can’t predict winners consistently

It turns out our bracket-picking prowess gets clouded by many of the behavioral biases that derail investors. According to my friend Rory Henry @Roryshenry, business development director at Arrowroot Family Office and host of the AFO Wealth Management Forward podcast, here are the five most common biases that trip up bracket pickers and investors:  


1. Recency Bias occurs when people give more weight to recent events than historical data. For example, in the Big Ten Conference tournament held just before March Madness, Wisconsin's surprising victory might lead many to overrate them in the NCAA tournament despite a so-so regular season record. Conversely, Purdue, who many saw as a top overall pick throughout the season stumbled in the Big Ten Conference tournament and caused many bracketologists to remove them from their Final Four selections. If you’re keeping score at home, Purdue cruised through the first two rounds and Wisconsin was bounced in the first round.

 

2. Affinity Bias refers to our natural inclination to support teams or schools with which we have a personal connection or fondness. As a proud UCLA alum, Henry says he often picks the Bruins to win it all whenever they are in the tournament even if they’re not having a great year.

 

3. Overconfidence Bias occurs when individuals overestimate their knowledge or predictive abilities, which can lead to flawed decision-making. Watching a lot of college basketball might make someone overly confident in their bracket selections, possibly ignoring the unpredictable nature of the tournament and the potential for upsets.

 

4. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs. In March Madness, if you believe a perennial favorite like Kentucky is a strong contender, and all the pundits say so as well, you might ignore signs of weakness (youth, inexperience, turnovers) that could be exposed against veteran teams in the high-pressure NCAA tournament. No.3 Kentucky was sent home in the first round by No.14 Oakland, a small commuter school outside of Detroit.

 

5. Intergroup Bias happens when we favor our own group (in-group bias) and the negative evaluation of rival groups (out-group bias). For example, Henry said if you have a strong dislike for a team like Arizona due to its rivalry with UCLA, you might underrate Arizona's chances in the tournament, not because of their skills or record, but because of the rivalry. Same goes for Duke vs. Carolina, Michigan vs. Ohio State and Oregon vs. Washington. Henry said: “You can bet your bottom dollar Arizona won't be making past the Round of 32 in my bracket,” but the Wildcats have posted two convincing victories so far and are favored again in the Swett 16.


Then there are the intangibles like team chemistry and culture. As my friend Dan McMahon, Managing Partner of
Integrated Growth Advisors (and a diehard UConn Huskies fan) wrote recently:

“While athleticism and recruiting budgets are important, the most successful teams in the tourney year after year are those with strong cultures built on trust, communication, and shared values. On these teams, every member of the roster from the stars to the walk-on benchwarmers are valued and has a unique role on the team.”

As I’ve learned over the years, filling out your brackets is like constructing a diversified investment portfolio. You’re trying to find the right balance between the “safe picks” (the top seeded, blue-chip stocks) and the “upset picks” (the undervalue lower seeds, aka small cap growth stocks) that earn you bonus points and separate you from the other players in your pool. That’s where team culture, like a strong company management and culture can trump financial statements and team stats.

 

Now, let’s look at how these bracket-picking biases relate to investing:

 

Recency Bias. Investors believe that last year’s top performing stocks and funds will repeat their success in the current year. In reality, last year’s top performers are usually in the middle or bottom third of the pack the following year. Remember how well tech stocks did in 2022 or how poorly energy did? What a difference a year makes. Same goes for all the bracket pickers going for last year’s Final Four participants San Diego State, Connecticut, Miami and Florida Atlantic. Only UConn and San Diego State remain this year. Miam and Florida Atlantic didn’t even qualify.

 

Familiarity Bias. It’s amazing how many people pick their alma mater to do well regardless of the team’s record or who else is in its bracket. People also tend to overweight teams that are in their geographic area because they hear about them all the time on the news, or because many family members are alums. The same goes for investors who overweight their portfolios based on the industry in which they work, or Fortune 500 companies located nearby.

 

The reciprocal of Familiarity Bias is Unfamiliarity Bias. That’s the tendency to ignore promising investments because you’re not familiar with the company or industry – or ignoring promising overseas markets because you’re not familiar with the language or the culture. Same goes for March Madness. West Coast hoops fans are far more likely to overlook East Coast powerhouses like UConn, North Carolina and Marquette, even though both programs have been in the national top 10 and make it to the Big Dance almost every year.

 

Overconfidence Bias is another derailer for both investors and bracket players. Most pool participants have massive confidence in top-ranked teams. Yet, only once in the history of the tournament (2008) have all four No.1 seeds made it to the Final Four. Some years only one of the four No.1 seeds will make it that far—you never know which one. Same goes for investors who overweight the Magnificent Seven or Dow 30 stocks.

 

Following the Herd. Oddsmakers love it when the American public stampedes over itself crowding into the same bets. History shows all four No.1 seeds almost never make it to the Final Four in the same year, but once again, those top four rated teams have the most votes to make it to the Final Four this year. And two of those teams (Houston and Purdue) have never won a national title despite years of success. Reminds me of all the investors who continue piling into Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla (and Bitcoin) despite their frothy valuations.

 

The “Halo Effect” comes into play when investors blindly follow the recommendations or investing choices of gurus such as Bill Gross and Warren Buffet. It’s the same when bracket pickers blindly follow the wonky statistical models of KenPom, 538, and RPI, or blindly pencil in the “sleeper” picks of TV analysts Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, or former President Obama. As with the stock jockeys on TV, the picks of the expert hoop heads on TV rarely pan out.

 

Then there’s the fallacy of “breakeven,” a mental accounting trap that has plagued gamblers and investors alike for centuries. How many times have you held on to a losing stock for years, just waiting for it to get back to the original purchase price before you dump it? Likewise, how many people keep selecting BYU (31 tournament appearances without a title); Tennessee (26 appearances without a title); Alabama and Creighton (25 appearances without a title) to go far in the tourney because they have great records again and this time, you tell yourself, it’s finally their year. Or maybe, you tell yourself, it’s the Zags’ year because they’re long overdue for a championship.

Gonzaga University, formerly a little-known “microcap” from eastern Washington is now a mighty mega-cap in the world of college basketball. The Bulldogs have qualified for the NCAA tournament an amazing 25 straight years and have never come close to having a losing season during that span. They have an impressive record again this year. The majority of bracket pickers have the Zags brand penciled in for another deep run in the tournament – because they always do -- despite the fact that Gonzaga has never won the championship. EVER.

 

Conclusion

 

Whether investing, gambling, or taking part in the friendly office pool, always check your emotions at the door. Working with an objective, independent advisor is one of the best ways we know to prevent your intuitions from causing you to stray from your plan and making costly turnovers that will shake your confidence and derail your plan.

Who’s your pick to win it all and why? I’d love to hear from you and why.

#marchmadness, #behavioralfinance, #bracketsbusted

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Why It’s Hard to Edit Our Own Writing?


Simple steps for breaking through

Whether you have three books to your credit or agonize over a monthly blog post, there are at least a dozen reasons why it can be challenging to edit our own writing effectively. How many of these traps below sound like you? If you answered, yes to three or more, I have some suggestions for you at the end of this post:

1.      Familiarity bias: We are intimately familiar with our own thoughts and writing. This can make it difficult to spot errors or areas that need improvement. Our brains tend to fill in gaps and overlook mistakes because we know what we intended to say.

2.      Emotional attachment: We often develop an emotional attachment to our writing, making it hard to be objective and critical when editing. We may be reluctant to make significant changes or cuts because we've invested time and effort into the piece.

3.      Lack of distance: When we're deeply involved in a piece of writing, it's hard to step back and view it with fresh eyes. We may be too close to the material to see it from a reader's perspective.

4.      Confirmation bias: We tend to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs or interpretations. This makes it harder to identify flaws or weaknesses in our arguments or explanations.

5.      Blind spots: We may have blind spots or areas of our writing that we simply can't see objectively, whether it's due to our writing style, subject matter expertise, or personal biases. Sound familiar?

6.      Editing fatigue: Editing requires sustained concentration and attention to detail, which can be mentally draining. After a certain point, our ability to spot errors or willingness to make improvements will diminish.

7.      Difficulty with self-criticism: Some writers struggle with being overly critical or not critical enough when evaluating their own work. This makes it hard to strike the right balance.

8.      Perfectionism. I need every sentence to be perfect before I go on to the next. Instead, write quickly in a stream of consciousness style and then go back and revise, revise, revise. As Voltaire liked to say: “Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good.”

9.      Data dumping. I want to share everything I know about a subject. Spoiler alert: Nobody cares how extensive your knowledge is. True genius comes from distilling complex subjects into easily understandable bite-size nuggets. Doing so will prevent you from succumbing to Smartest Kid in the Class Syndrome.

10.   Hubris. I handle complex multi-state tax returns, multimillion-dollar estate plans and retirement plans for Fortune 1000 executives. How hard can writing be? Probably harder than you think.

11.   Impatience/tech reliance. I don’t make my living as a writer. I don’t have time for this. Why can’t I just let AI/Grammarly and software do it for me? How well did those Cliffs Notes work out for you in college?

12.   Procrastination.  Writing is something many people find unpleasant. It’s easy to put it off and avoid it until the inevitable deadline comes bearing down on you.


Tips for editing your own writing

1. Take breaks from your writing. Set your timer for one hour or a specific time of day. Then hit the save button on your work. Walk away for several hours or better yet, for at least a full day. You’ll come back with a fresh set of eyes and usually a surprising amount of clarity.


2. Seek feedback from others – people who you can count on to give you to tell you the truth.


3. Read your work aloud. Is it cringeworthy? Where does it start to drag?  Does it sound like you?


4. Start with the end in mind. What are the three most important takeaways you want your reader to gain from reading your work? Write them at the top of your piece and make sure you have answered them clearly. In your conclusion, remind the reader the expert insights you just shared with them. Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell them. Then you tell them. Then you tell ‘em what you just told ‘em.


5. Create an outline before writing. Start simply with the introduction, then the purpose of your piece, followed by the three to four main points and a conclusion. After that, it’s just a matter of filling in the blanks.

6. Just get started. If you’re a procrastinator or perfectionist, taking the first step is the key. As the old saying goes: “You can always edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page. Your first draft is supposed to suck. Just get your thoughts on paper and revise, revise, revise.

7. Get an accountability partner
who will keep you on task. It could be a trusted colleague, good friend or even a writing coach who can make sure you have your outline, rough drafts and final drafts completed by the dates to which you committed. NOTE: I don’t recommend using your spouse as an accountability partner unless you can prevent criticism of your writing from spilling over into other areas of your relationship. That said, you can always do what our client Kyle Walters recommends and use the ‘Call Your Mom’ Strategy. She’ll always tell you the unvarnished truth.

8. Make a hard copy and use a pencil. Not to be anti-green here, but before you submit your final draft, make a hard copy of your work (print on both sides) and take out a pencil to do a final review of the piece. Personally, I’ve found it useful to read the hard copy to myself aloud. Using a pencil and reading aloud slows your brain down and forces you to listen – really listen -- to what you’re trying to say.

As Ernest Hemingway liked to say: “Write drunk, edit sober.”

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter how well you know the numbers, without having a solid command of the English language you won’t be taken seriously. After all, You're an Elite Professional; Don't Sound Like a Jamoke

 
#grammar, #businesscommunication, #selfediting, #thoughtleadership,

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Irregardless, I Could Care Less

Most of you are armed with grammar apps, spell checkers and AI. But we’re still seeing plenty of grammatical fumbles in your submissions. Take the word “irregardless.” It’s frequently misused because it appears in most dictionaries and sounds more imposing than simply saying “regardless. ” By adding the prefix “ir” (which means “not”) to a word that already means “without regard,” you’re essentially saying: “not not without regard.” Huh!?

Using double negatives makes you sound unprofessional and unattuned to the details. That’s a liability if you’re in professional services even if your software doesn’t flag it. Most of the time “regardless” will suffice when you’re implying that something will happen (or is true) without being influenced by other conditions.

TIP: Try substituting “regardless” for “irregardless” in each example below.

·           Irregardless of opposition, he still wanted to expand the team.

·           They decided they would go ahead with the plan irregardless of the risks.

·           She elected to buy the growth stock irregardless of the high valuation.

·           I'm not sure about your tax advice, but I'm going to follow it irregardless.

Did the meaning or intent change? No. Are the sentences cleaner and more economical? Yes. Did you save your reader time? Yes. Stick with regardless.

I could (or couldn’t) care less?

On a recent NBA telecast, analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said: I could care less what people think. People are stupid.”

Barkley is an imposing 300-pound individual who was known as The Round Mound of Rebound during his playing days. I might not correct Big Chuck in person, but if he “could care less” what people think, it implies that he does care at least a little bit what people think of him. Likewise, many of you have said you “could care less” about clients who ignore your advice or you “could care less” about Jim Cramer’s latest stock tip on cable TV. Please tell me you didn’t mean that!

When you get a chance, tell your software that “could care less” and “couldn’t care less” are often used interchangeably, even though only one of them technically conveys the intended meaning.

People will often use “I could care less” as a shorthand way of showing how little they care. But “I could care less” implies that you still have a little room left in your subconscious to care about something -- even though you don’t hold it in high “regard.” Would your interest be piqued if new information or your circumstances changed? That’s what you’re implying by using “could care less.”

For all intensive purposes, don’t peek

Speaking of “piqued,” it’s spelled with a “q” if you’re trying to show interest in something. I’ve seen some of you mistakenly write “peaked” (as though your interest level is no longer as high as it used to be) or “peeked” (as in you took a quick look at something but didn’t study it further). “Peaked” and “peeked” generally won’t get flagged by your tools, but they’re not the correct word choices in the aforementioned situation. So, for all “intents and purposes,” follow the rules above and you’ll be just fine. By the way, “intents and purposes” is correct if you mean “in effect” or “essentially.” Don’t say: “intensive purposes”!

It's great to have spellcheck, grammar apps and AI to assist you. However, you can’t go wrong by reading your work aloud before submitting it or consulting with a trained professional if you’re not sure. I hate grammar, too. When in doubt, I just keep it simple and try to be as economical as possible with word choices. As Barkley famously said when asked about his formidable rebounding technique: “Yeah, I've got a technique. It's called just go get the damn ball!”

 

Conclusion
It doesn’t matter how well you know the numbers, without having a solid command of the English language you won’t be taken seriously. After all, You're an Elite Professional; Don't Sound Like a Jamoke or #TheRoundMoundofRebound.

 
#grammar, #businesscommunication, #thoughtleadership, #TheRoundMoundofRebound.

Friday, January 05, 2024

Don't Set Resolutions Yet

 Ahh the Holidays. We ate, drank and spent too much. We let too much work slide. We let family relationships fray. It’s natural to want to get back on track and make amends. But our minds and bodies aren’t ready for significant behavioral modification yet. Instead, use this time to test-drive your resolutions so you can work out the kinks, make realistic adjustments, and commit to them for real come February or March.

Here's why. Research suggests only one in ten Americans (9%) complete the resolutions they have set. In fact, one in four people (23%) will quit their resolutions by the end of the first week, and nearly half (43%) quit by the end of January.  Take health resolutions, one of the most popular and misguided categories. Research conducted by fitness app Strava shows that January 19th – less than three weeks out – is the most popular day for abandoning resolutions. Strava calls it "Quitter's Day." In a minute I’ll explain why that’s actually good. 

Why resolutions fail


The main reason so many resolutions fail is because they’re way too ambitious, they’re too vague or they’re not easily measurable. For instance, people who’ve been sedentary for years suddenly announce their resolution to run a marathon or do a (100 mile) century ride without any plans to do shorter events or build up their training gradually. Or they simply say: “This year I’m finally going to get in shape” or “lose weight” or “finally write that book I’ve been talking about for years” without any tangible milestones or benchmarks such as dong 10 more pushups per week, or losing one pound per week, or writing 1,000 words per week or one chapter per month.

Without setting realistic, tangible and easily measurable goals, it’s too easy to make excuses or get discouraged when real-life gets in the way. Harvard Business School professor, Amy Cuddy believes resolutions don’t last because too often we’re setting ourselves up for failure and self-loathing. “We tend to set unreasonable aims for ourselves and then experience negative emotions and a lack of motivation when we don’t reach them,” she observed. “Failing to meet the unreasonable goals we set for ourselves can in turn take a negative toll on our self-worth,” added Cuddy.

When it comes to goal setting, we all go through rough patches and setbacks. Jocko Willink, the retired Navy Seal and motivational speaker says that’s good. “Don’t get bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. Just look at the issue and say: ‘Good.’” Willink says it’s good when things suck because you have more time to take stock of the situation and to find a solution and get better. “Don’t throw in the towel,” barks Willink. “Get up. Dust off. Reload. Recalibrate and Re-Engage.”  (Jocko’s brief video is guaranteed to get you fired up!)

Here are five tips for making resolutions stick and here’s my take on the hard thing about hard things.

My resolutions

As for me, I’m test-driving three resolutions for late Q1 rollout.

 

1. Health. As some of you know I’m a bit of a caffeine addict. Last year I gradually eliminated all soda and chocolate from my diet. In 2024, I’m hoping to reduce my coffee intake by 50% by mid-year, starting by switching to a 6-oz cup from my usual 8-oz mug.

2. Work-Life Balance. I’ve learned the hard way that I can’t reduce my hours without a significant loss in income. But for 2024, I’m hoping to keep the hours the same and reduce the amount of work done at night and on the weekend by 25% by mid-year. It starts by going to bed 15 minutes earlier each weeknight and getting to the office 15 minutes earlier each weekday. That’s already a 75-minute improvement each week.

3. Fitness. My 20-year-old son and I have committed to doing a #MurphChallenge around the last week of March – and complete it in less than one hour. If you’re not familiar with a Murph Challenge, it was the favorite workout of former Navy SEAL, Michael Murphy of Lone Survivor movie fame. It ain’t easy.

The Murph workout includes the following:

·        1 mile run.

·        100 pull-ups.

·        200 push-ups.

·        300 air squats.

·        Finish with a second 1 mile run.

Anyone want to join us? Contact me to see how you stack up.

We’re doing 33% of the challenge once per week during January; 50% of the challenge once per week in February and 75% of the challenge once per week in early to mid-March. My son’s a gym rat and will probably crush me on the pullups and pushups. But I’m a faster runner and have better endurance. Should be a good matchup.

Conclusion


As the old proverb goes “Slow and steady wins the race.” Use this month as “exhibition season” to test drive your resolutions for the year ahead. You may have to make some adjustments and eat some humble pie, but you’ll be stronger for it. When you think you’re ready to go live, post them in a public place (see mine above) and have an accountability partner to keep you on track. On those days when you just don’t think you have it, follow the Japanese principle of Kaizen (continuous improvement) getting just 1% better every day. Have a great 2024.

#resolutions, #personalgrowth, #selfawareness, #MurphChallenge

 

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Does Word Count Matter?

Rarely a week goes by when a nervous financial professional doesn’t reach to me for help with a last-minute guest column for the business media. With a deadline bearing down, the thrill of being a guest contributor has been replaced by the anxiety of “what am I going to write about and how will I/we get it done on time!?!”

Inevitably thoughts turn to word count. They’re typically upset because the editor’s assigned word count is either too long (i.e., how will I ever fill up that much space?) or too short (i.e., how can I jam my entire life’s work into such a tight space?!?!). Ahhhhhh. They joys of being an author.

When it comes to word count, there’s no hard and fast rule for how long a blog post, article, white paper or even a book should be. Don’t believe me? Ask your favorite search engine or AI tool and you’ll see “recommended word counts” ranging from 300 to 2,500 words for blogs and 800 to 5,000 words for articles. That’s not very helpful, is it?

Less is more

At HB, we lean toward the “less is more” approach. But, as Mark Twain famously quipped to a friend: “'I apologize for such a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one.'

Twain could get away with that logic because he was one of the greatest authors in our country’s history. So, the short answer is this: If you’re an exceptional storyteller and can keep your prose compelling, go ahead an air it out. But for the rest of us, shorter is generally better as long as you don’t “dumb down” the complex topics you’re frequently asked to write about.

For business and financial topics, we’ve found that 600 to 900 words scores best for blog posts and 1,000 to 1,500 words (including the Key Takeaways) tends to get the most engagement for articles. Most financial editors will assign word lengths in this range. Of course, there are exceptions. Most word processing software generates about 400 words per page, so an ideal blog post is 1.5 to 2 pages and an ideal article is about 2.5 to 4 pages. For white papers and book chapters, we’re seeing that 2,000 to 4,000 words works best (think 5 to 10 Microsoft Word pages).

Here are some tips for keeping concise:

1. Read your work aloud before submitting it for publication. Most people read at 200 to 300 words per minute. So, an 800-word blog post is a three to four minute. A 1,250-word article is about a four to six minute read. If someone was listening to your piece on their headphones, could you hold your interest for that long? Does it seem to be dragging anywhere? Are you being redundant or vague? These are clues to where you could tighten up or cut.

2. Use short sentences. If you see any instances in which your sentences are more than two lines long, that’s a likely sign of a run-on sentence. Break your prose into shorter more digestible chunks of information, especially if you’re writing online. It’s okay to start sentences with “determiners” such as “And” , “But” and “So” these days. Your high school English teacher would be horrified, but I’ll write you a note to exempt you. Your readers will thank you, too.

Here’s a recent example from one of our clients:

ORIGINAL (one sentence, 65 words): “The sliding scale depends on which of the four “pools” your business falls into, but for many of you, the schedule starts at 40% of cost in the first year the equipment is placed in service; rises to 56% in Year-2, and then declines steadily from 42% in Year-3, all the way down to 18%, and Year-6 and to 15% in Year 7 and beyond.”

REVISED: (4 sentences, 53 words total) The sliding scale depends upon which of the four tiers your business belongs. The schedule starts at 40% of cost in the first year your equipment is placed in service. But the rate rises to 56% in Year-2. Then it declines steadily from 42% in Year-3 to 15% in Year 7 and beyond.


3. Tell ‘em times 3.
 As my old boss at the AICPA used to tell us before every presentation, make sure you get three things across to your audience:

a) You tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em (INTRO).
b) Then you tell ‘em (MAIN BODY).
c) Then you ‘em what you just told ‘em (CONCLUSION).


Same goes for your written communication.

4. Key Takeaways. Whether you call them Key Takeaways, Hot Takes, Key Learnings, Summary Bullets or simply Takeaways, those hardworking bullet points at the top of your content should provide readers with an instant summary of what they will learn from you. Here’s more on Key Takeaways.

5. Call to action. You don’t need to overwhelm readers with everything you know about a topic. Financial professionals frequently suffer from Smartest Kid in the Class Syndrome. You just want to stimulate their interest and have them reach out to you for more information. Make it easy for them to find you to set a time to discuss with you in more detail. Then you can share more of your lifetime body of work.

Conclusion

Just keep these simple tips in mind and you’ll be fine. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how well you know the numbers, without a solid command of the English language, you won’t be taken seriously. After all, You're an Elite Professional; Don't Sound Like a Jamoke.


#grammar; #wordcount; #businesscommunication; #thoughtleadership

Saturday, November 18, 2023

When to Use i.e. Instead of e.g.

Sometimes I regret that I didn’t take Latin in high school. But there was only one Latin teacher to choose from in our small school. Supposedly he was a monster, i.e., he was a brutal grader, with a bad temper and breath to match. Still, it would have been good to know the derivation of so many words used in modern languages, e.g., English, Italian and Spanish. If nothing else, I wouldn’t be second-guessing myself about misusing these small, but powerful “interrupting” words such as i.e. and e.g.

Here’s how I keep them straight.
I.e. stands for the Latin id est, or 'in other words,' and is used to introduce a word or phrase that restates what has been said previously.


If your portfolio has a high beta, (i.e., higher-than-average risk) then you can expect outsize performance during bull markets, and worse than average performance during bear markets.

E.g. means “for example.” (It stands for exempli gratia in Latin.) It is used the way you’d use 'for example,' coming before an item or a list of items.


The summer associates rotate through many departments (e.g., tax, audit, planning, payroll, bookkeeping and advisory services).

 

It may help to remember that both 'that is' and 'for example' work in English the same way as i.e. and e.g. Still not confident? Try substituting ‘that is’ for i.e., or ‘for example’ for e.g.; if your sentence still makes sense you’ve used the right one.

Punctuating i.e. and e.g.


Your AI or spellchecker will usually catch this, but make sure you have a period after each letter. It’s best to have a comma following the last letter. Without those punctuation symbols, it’s distracting to the reader and your software may try to fill in a more complete word such as “egg” or “leg” or “peg” if it just sees “eg” without punctuation.

Conclusion

I don’t love grammar and punctuation any more than you do. English is a devious language with more exceptions to the rule than the U.S. tax code. Just keep these simple tips in mind and you’ll be fine. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how well you know the numbers, without a solid command of the English language, you won’t be taken seriously. After all, You're an Elite Professional; Don't Sound Like a Jamoke


#grammar; #businesscommunication; #thoughtleadership

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Where vs. In Which?

A well-known financial professional seemed to be hedging her bets in a recent piece she sent to us for review. Right off the bat, three sentences rubbed me the wrong way (but apparently not her Marcom team): 

·       *  It's a win-win situation where the firm can provide higher-quality services, and the clients achieve better financial outcomes.

In an age where economic uncertainties are more prevalent, clients seek advisors who can provide more than just compliance services.

·        * Visual learners find value in well-structured presentations such as PowerPoints or PDFs, where a picture can convey more than a thousand words.

Which sentence above do you think is correct? If you said “None of the above” then you’re right. In each instance, no specific place or location is specified. The author is referring to more abstract terms or concepts. She should have gone with “in which” as in: It's a win-win situation in which the firm can provide higher-quality services …..”  The situation is NOT a place you can see or visit.  

Again, I’m no grammarian and don’t aspire to be one. I just try to keep things simple when writing or editing. Here’s how I keep “Where” vs. “In Which” straight:

·         Use "where" when referring to a specific, physical place. For example: "the city where I was born" or "the building where the conference is being held."

·         Use "in which" when referring to something more abstract or conceptual, rather than to a specific physical location. For example: "the circumstances in which the accident occurred" or "the era in which this style of art thrived."

So, don't write about a situation where…, a theory where…, a case where… a legal dispute where. Those are all cases to use “in which.”

But if you think “in which” is too formal or stuffy, you can bend the rules a little and use “Where” to refer to the status of a situation or circumstance. For instance:

·        Where do you see this relationship going? Or

·        He took a plane to Morocco, where he met his cousin for the first time.

The above instances are okay to use “Where” and I won’t tell Mrs. McGillicuddy, your 8th grade English teacher.

Quick quiz: Fill in the blank

“Using a spreadsheet when a data warehouse was required created a situation _______ effective analysis was impossible.”
a. where
b. in which


Correct Answer: b (in which).  The situation is not a physical location, it’s a scenario. You might find it easier to default to “where,” but when reviewing your work, please make sure you flag the “where” and then ask yourself if you’re referring to a physical location or a scenario. See, it’s easy.

Speaking of reviewing your work, I’m all for Grammarly, Spellcheck and AI, but there’s nothing more effective than reading your work back to yourself, preferably aloud. You’re a skilled professional with a personal brand to protect. With a little practice, you ear will usually help you arrive at the correct answer.


Conclusion

I know English is a maddeningly perverse language with more exceptions to the rule than the U.S. tax code. Just keep these simple tips in mind and you’ll be fine. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how well you know the numbers, without a solid command of the English language, you won’t be taken seriously. After all, You're an Elite Professional; Don't Sound Like a Jamoke


#grammar; #businesscommunication; #thoughtleadership