Rodney's blog

Contronyms create ambiguity

A contronym (also spelled contranym) is a word – or short phrase – that is its own opposite. Contronyms can be useful to managers wanting to deliberately create ambiguity, to avoid being accountable for actions, policies, planning or decisions.

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Proverbs for, proverbs against

Are you at work looking for wisdom, or to be validated as wise yourself? Proverbs can help. They’ve stood tests of time and place, and there’s at least one for every occasion. Found one that proves you wrong? Don’t worry, seek a little further and there’ll be a proverb showing that you’re correct after all.

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Writing a to-do list is one more thing to do

I’ve always liked doing things, and checking them off a to-do list. Over the years, I’ve tried different lengths, and have surveyed a few friends, family members, colleagues and passers-by. Here are the evidence-based results, statistically significant to three decimal places, where n=20 or so.

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How I write jokes

Okay, this is not necessarily a how-to for anyone else to write jokes, because, perhaps, I’m a little idiosyncratic, but nonetheless, by extrapolation, there may be something useful here. For someone. Maybe not you, but not only me. Someone in between.

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People are Human Resources, too

Buzzword bingo for HR: here are 25 keywords to make you sound like you know what you’re talking about. Pepper your conversation with them, sound authoritative, appear authentic and your upward mobility is assured.

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Jargon Generator

Select a word from each of the three sections. This innovative process will create a three-word description of a project or a management theory. You’ll have thousands of options to choose from, or from which to choose. I’m not sure that pedantic is quite the right word. Colleagues, superiors and subordinates will admire your originality, hold your linguistic dexterity in their highest esteem, and look up to your adroit leadership style.

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