I've lost my touch

[Joshex]

I used to have such magnificent writing skills, to myself I cannot seem to notice much of a difference. Though at other times I can notice a difference in my head.

Sometimes my vocabulary eludes me, and at other times it's not the vocabulary but rather the general intelectual plot of what I write. I used to be able to write amazing chronicals, adventures, and decisive comments. Now I seem to write as if I don't care to do so any more. However that cannot be further from the truth.

I recently sent my college a writing sample and they suggested I take beginners courses in college writing, that was a shock to me.

Have I really begun to slack that much?

Is there anyone here that can help?

[DarkCurrent]

Just say 'no' to drugs.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Just say 'no' to drugs.

Oh is that what your suppose to say?

[Captain Electric]

- http://books.simonandschuster.com/Careful-Writer/Theodore-M-Bernstein/9780684826325
- http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060891541
- http://www.stephenking.com/library/nonfiction/on_writing:_a_memoir_of_the_craft.html
- http://www.writersdigest.com/

A neat trick: Pick up a good book, a newspaper article, whatever, and read it intently while pretending you're re-reading something that you wrote. You will find yourself paying attention to details beyond the content itself, regarding grammar usage, style and voice, and you will remember these details later when you sit down to write about something on your own.

[Segev]

I've only read your posts since some time after the closure announcement for CoH, as I hadn't sought out forums to discuss the game until then.

Not trying to be harsh, but you tend, like many, to write your forum posts in a very stream-of-consciousness style. Your grammar - particularly sentence structure - is often rambling and lacks the proper punctuation to make your thoughts well-ordered in their presentation. It has gotten a bit more pronounced as time's gone on and you've spoken more and more of your despondency over how things are going.

Some of it, too, is the content; you lurch periodically into what many would consider (no offense) "tin-foil hat" territory. I'm not trying to judge; after all, on the internet, with so many disparate points of view, some people's mainstream is others' wacky conspiracy theory, particularly where politics come up. (And, tragically, with the way our culture has gone, there is almost nothing you can't make political with only a modicum of effort.)

Content will shape people's perception of otherwise good grammar and presentation. Poor grammar and presentation will mar, however, even the most cogent and intelligent of observations.

I will not tell anybody not to share their points of view. To serve yourself better, I suggest that you not just stop and re-read your posts, but that you take a conscious effort to focus on proper capitalization and punctuation as you write. If your writing has slipped lately, these forum posts are a good place to practice. Letting your skills slip in "casual" text can easily reflect in "formal" writing. The reverse is also true.

My own writing tends towards overly-long sentences with a hint of sesquipedalian loquatiousness. When I do stop to edit, I often find myself breaking sentences up into two or three sentences. I don't technically have many run-ons, merely really really long sentences with numerous clauses. They still get confusing to those not in my head. You do tend towards run-ons, particularly when emphatic, and you would benefit from taking a conscious effort to shorten them and make sure you punctuate properly.

I hope I am not coming off offensive; I am merely trying to offer advice based on what I've observed and your comment about wanting to improve. I have no idea where you were more than 9-10 months ago. I've only seen you since CoH's closure was announced.

Good luck!

[dwturducken]

Or, you're a replicant, and you're reaching end of life.

What? The movie takes place in 2019, to the Nexus 6's depicted in the film should roll off the line in a couple of years, right?

[TimtheEnchanter]

First, I need to know something, Joshex, was CoH inspiring your writing? If so, there have been numerous artists around here who have struggled since their muse was taken away.

[Pinnacle Blue]

I used to have such magnificent writing skills, to myself I cannot seem to notice much of a difference. Though at other times I can notice a difference in my head.

Sometimes my vocabulary eludes me, and at other times it's not the vocabulary but rather the general intelectual plot of what I write. I used to be able to write amazing chronicals, adventures, and decisive comments. Now I seem to write as if I don't care to do so any more. However that cannot be further from the truth.

I recently sent my college a writing sample and they suggested I take beginners courses in college writing, that was a shock to me.

Have I really begun to slack that much?

Is there anyone here that can help?

What you have to understand is that "good writing" and what colleges look for are two different things.  College writing, I've found, is highly structured-- the basic essay structure is: First sentence is your thesis statement, period.  Then what follows is: saying what you're going to say (first paragraph), saying it (however many paragraphs that takes), then saying what you've said (last paragraph).  There are, obviously, other ways to do that, but the universities just want to make sure you understand structure as well as spelling, punctuation, and good grammar.

Here's the thing: Reading stuff on the internet that is written by everyday, ordinary people who are not particularly skilled at spelling, punctuation, and/or grammar can cause you to take on their bad habits.  A large part of knowing how to do these things correctly is the reinforcement you get from repeatedly seeing them done correctly.  As anyone who's been on the internet for a month can tell you, people who don't know how to do those things correctly and have no interest in doing them correctly get extremely defensive about having their mistakes pointed out to them.  If you're serious about recapturing what it is you've lost, step away from the computer and stick your nose in some books (e.g., the suggested ones above).  If that's not feasible, then for God's sake don't read anything in comments sections or online forums.

I hope this helps.  Either way?  Good luck!!

Edited to add: bear in mind, the last time I was in college was 13 years ago.

[Joshex]

- http://books.simonandschuster.com/Careful-Writer/Theodore-M-Bernstein/9780684826325
- http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060891541
- http://www.stephenking.com/library/nonfiction/on_writing:_a_memoir_of_the_craft.html
- http://www.writersdigest.com/

A neat trick: Pick up a good book, a newspaper article, whatever, and read it intently while pretending you're re-reading something that you wrote. You will find yourself paying attention to details beyond the content itself, regarding grammar usage, style and voice, and you will remember these details later when you sit down to write about something on your own.

books, yes I used to read alot, I almost forgot about that.

I've only read your posts since some time after the closure announcement for CoH, as I hadn't sought out forums to discuss the game until then.

Not trying to be harsh, but you tend, like many, to write your forum posts in a very stream-of-consciousness style. Your grammar - particularly sentence structure - is often rambling and lacks the proper punctuation to make your thoughts well-ordered in their presentation. It has gotten a bit more pronounced as time's gone on and you've spoken more and more of your despondency over how things are going.

Some of it, too, is the content; you lurch periodically into what many would consider (no offense) "tin-foil hat" territory. I'm not trying to judge; after all, on the internet, with so many disparate points of view, some people's mainstream is others' wacky conspiracy theory, particularly where politics come up. (And, tragically, with the way our culture has gone, there is almost nothing you can't make political with only a modicum of effort.)

Content will shape people's perception of otherwise good grammar and presentation. Poor grammar and presentation will mar, however, even the most cogent and intelligent of observations.

I will not tell anybody not to share their points of view. To serve yourself better, I suggest that you not just stop and re-read your posts, but that you take a conscious effort to focus on proper capitalization and punctuation as you write. If your writing has slipped lately, these forum posts are a good place to practice. Letting your skills slip in "casual" text can easily reflect in "formal" writing. The reverse is also true.

My own writing tends towards overly-long sentences with a hint of sesquipedalian loquatiousness. When I do stop to edit, I often find myself breaking sentences up into two or three sentences. I don't technically have many run-ons, merely really really long sentences with numerous clauses. They still get confusing to those not in my head. You do tend towards run-ons, particularly when emphatic, and you would benefit from taking a conscious effort to shorten them and make sure you punctuate properly.

I hope I am not coming off offensive; I am merely trying to offer advice based on what I've observed and your comment about wanting to improve. I have no idea where you were more than 9-10 months ago. I've only seen you since CoH's closure was announced.

Good luck!

Punctuation and grammar, yeah thanks for the insight, I started this thread for this reason, I was hoping to get a good critique.

First, I need to know something, Joshex, was CoH inspiring your writing? If so, there have been numerous artists around here who have struggled since their muse was taken away.

The language used in CoH even the item names indeed did inspire me to learn the origins of the english language. As such, yes my writing did improve while playing City of Heroes.

What you have to understand is that "good writing" and what colleges look for are two different things.  College writing, I've found, is highly structured-- the basic essay structure is: First sentence is your thesis statement, period.  Then what follows is: saying what you're going to say (first paragraph), saying it (however many paragraphs that takes), then saying what you've said (last paragraph).  There are, obviously, other ways to do that, but the universities just want to make sure you understand structure as well as spelling, punctuation, and good grammar.

Here's the thing: Reading stuff on the internet that is written by everyday, ordinary people who are not particularly skilled at spelling, punctuation, and/or grammar can cause you to take on their bad habits.  A large part of knowing how to do these things correctly is the reinforcement you get from repeatedly seeing them done correctly.  As anyone who's been on the internet for a month can tell you, people who don't know how to do those things correctly and have no interest in doing them correctly get extremely defensive about having their mistakes pointed out to them.  If you're serious about recapturing what it is you've lost, step away from the computer and stick your nose in some books (e.g., the suggested ones above).  If that's not feasible, then for God's sake don't read anything in comments sections or online forums.

I hope this helps.  Either way?  Good luck!!

Edited to add: bear in mind, the last time I was in college was 13 years ago.

Thats about the same as I was taught in my writing classes in highschool. I must admit I have slacked on that.

Agian thanks for your critiques everyone, they are very helpful.

[Turjan]

Now I seem to write as if I don't care to do so any more. However that cannot be further from the truth.

I'd say there's your problem, chum. Basically, you still know you can write well, because you've written well before. We don't live our lives backwards, and writing is one of those skills that gains from experience, and with time, maturing and deepening as it goes.

However, sometimes gaining that experience has a price. An emotional one.

When City of Heroes was taken from us, we all paid that price. It hit us all in as many different ways as there are those of us to hit, of course, but one thing cannot be denied - we all WERE hit.

You said you felt you seemed to be writing as if you didn't care any more, and in a way you're right - with CoH gone, a part of your creative side went into shock. Perfectly understandable of course, because for many of us here, CoH was a creativity sandbox, somewhere our dreams and ideas could literally take shape and our inspiration could grow and blossom. We all invested time and emotion into our world, and when it was taken away, we were hurt.

Often when people are hurt, they subconsciously recoil from what hurt them - not just the obvious pain, but sometimes the reaction goes deeper and we sever that part of ourselves entirely, believing amputation will prevent the hurt from spreading.

It's an understandable reaction to emotional stress, and thankfully one that can be reversed. In fact it usually reverses itself over time.

Confidence will return once you've found your new emotional balance. Part of you can already see that process happening, because when you mentioned about not caring about writing, you said "that cannot be further from the truth".

Your creativity will return, for in truth it never left, it merely went into hiding until it was safe to come out again

[JaguarX]

  As anyone who's been on the internet for a month can tell you, people who don't know how to do those things correctly and have no interest in doing them correctly get extremely defensive about having their mistakes pointed out to them. 

Yeah, for some that is highly annoying to them.

Some people are still in college and have to write paper after paper after paper and when thye get online, they just want to chill out and relax outside the stiff writing realm of where everything have to be top notch college research paper grade material. And people thta point out mistakes contantly kind of kill that.

Then I noticed that most of the time when people are busy pointing out other mistakes and preaching about grammar, they are maming mistakes of their own, many times within the same post they are "correcting" the other poster and preachign about importance of proper grammar and how society is dying due to people not using correct grammar anymore and how mistakes make people look stupid. It's like Ed Gein looking down on someone preaching that someone shouldnt kill.

Many times, in majority of the cases, people pointing out mistakes are doing it to get a cheap rise out of someone when they cant think of something witty to say. Look at most cases when people point of grammar mistakes and usually it's on a point they "just so happen" to not agree with.

And sometimes the writer made so many mistakes it is hard to read but like anything there is a way to go about it and most people may know alot about grammar, and claim to be English professors and such (Yet curiously have no concept of the meaning of communication and dotn have the ability to tell the difference between formal and informal communication and settings, which is usually the meat and bones of English majors), but know nothing of tact unless it applies to to themselves. The way most people correct other grammar, it will put most people on the defensive as it usually aint put "hey, I seriously dont understand what you are trying to say, because I cant understand such and such." It's usually *insult* You mispelled such and such wrong. You look like an idiot. *another insult* And that period is in the wrong place. 


Even with me, I make mistakes. Online I dont fret too much over minor ones and usually if feature is available try to correct the major ones. Yet, I purposely try to not write in college research paper format as to me research papers are a bit stiff, and bit too formal. I can use big words, and elaborate sentence structures but why? Online, kick my feet up and chill. At work and in school, it's straight business. Of course online the main goal is communication. If the message is muddled, which sometimes happen especially if I havent had my Rockstar yet, or the message is not clear, it seems like it would kill some peopel to simply say, I didnt understand that (not here. Many people actually say, Jag, I didnt understand a word you just said there). And usually I just try to clarify. In many other places it's not like that and not usuallyat me as outside here, I dotn write much on other sites, "You must not passed 3rd grade. You cant sppell for crap. I'm English professor and I cant stand unpoper grammar and spellings" And I'm looking like, "Really? You are going to get on that guy's case for mispelling yet make some of your own? Sit down somewhere before you hurt yourself."

[Segev]

I admit that I sometimes will point out others' mistakes, but I generally only do so when they're either incomprehensible to me, or they're complaining that people aren't paying attention to what they say. It's at that point that I feel the need to point out that grammar's primary purpose, particularly in writing, is to make writing legible and help visually organize thoughts so that readers can more easily pick apart the cluster of verbiage and derive meaning.

And while it's ironic when those who point out mistakes make mistakes of their own in that very post, it's not hypocritical as long as they go correct when it's pointed out. And they are making an EFFORT to be accurate. Generally, people don't start jabbing others over grammar for small mistakes in otherwise well-punctuated posts, but when it's a run-on sentence with no caps, punctuation, or paragraphs.

(I will, generally, stop reading those after a line or two because I can't make head nor tails of it without far, far more effort to mentally insert grammatical markings than I care to devote.)

[JaguarX]

And while it's ironic when those who point out mistakes make mistakes of their own in that very post, it's not hypocritical as long as they go correct when it's pointed out. And they are making an EFFORT to be accurate. Generally, people don't start jabbing others over grammar for small mistakes in otherwise well-punctuated posts, but when it's a run-on sentence with no caps, punctuation, or paragraphs.

Been on Yahoo news comment section lately or the end of days on the forums? It got bad where people were pointing out simple stuff like per se vs per say (Which maybe I'm missing where mixing those two up can be totally detrimental to the entire message. But if thye know enough where it's supposed to be per se, then by definition didnt thye understand it enough?). Or even misplaced commas, or your vs you're usage, there vs their, which seem to me to be minor non-detrimental to entire message msitakes but the most commonly pointed out mistakes. 

I personally very rarely see anyone post with no caps or punctuations but some dont use paragraphs and yeah that can make reading a bit harder to follow. On the flip side I noticed that the definition of paragraph sometimes equal -length of words and sentences that are no longer than found in a kindergarten book and anything longer is tl:dr (which if they didnt truely read it, and it was truely too long, then how can they say they are responding to the point in even a remotely accurate way (different topic different time)? Or how is posts, most that number 1,000 words or less but rarely over 2,000 words tl;dr yet they are supposedly college grads and professors where 1,000 words is barely enough to cover the opening paragraph to a paper yet expect people to write online in college fashion?)


And yeah you read my thoughts exactly on that. Many of those that point out other mistakes in usually a very insulting manner and question why people get defensive usually end up getting defensive themselves when someone points out their mistakes. But I still think it odd to try and go out the way to correct someone else and give them a lecture on the importance of grammar and stuff yet still make mistakes while trying to tell someone else about puncture and grammar. I think out of all times that is the best time to make sure your stuff and reply is straight before posting about someone else mistakes as although the point may be accurate, it makes the person very less credible, especially if they are throwing the "I'm an English Professor" line in there, two it make it looks like they are searching and nit picking for other's mistakes to get on someone case but so busy in that task of looking for other's mistakes they forget to look at their own before posting, especially if they add the line of "You should use spell check before posting"., and three if added with a condencending tone like most do, it make it as if they seem full of themselves. Like those people that can always find fault in others but think they are flawless when they are not even in the statement they use to correct others. With those types of ingredients to the situation, it probably will cause the target to get defensive majority of the time.

The importance of getting the message across in a manner for readers is very important but there is one bone that many people forget sometimes especially the ones that correct small grammar mistakes that are not detrimental to the message. It's greatly possible that they was not the intended targeted audience. But that is one of the one background things that are never brought up especially in public forums because the question is hardly ever asked. "Am I the intended target audience for this piece?" especially if other seem to be getting it and a reader have a hard time understanding it and try to point out mistakes to make it to where they can understand it. Sometimes that is also an underlying cause of people getting defensive.


And lastly sometimes, a person might just not know any better might be 2nd grader for all we know and that claimed "English Professor" might be nothing more than some high school drop out that is going into his 40s still living parents because he is too lazy to get a job. Might be that the only rise in self-esteem they might be able to get is displaying how bright they are because they self appointed themselves editor of the forum. And many cases, it's just people that means well but again, lack tact in how they go about it and within that group are a few that they feel they cant let simple mistakes go and it's just who they are. And sometimes people forget that English is not everyone first language on the World Wide Web.

Me personally if I cant understand something, which have a high threshold for nonsense and can interpret all types of crazy stuff, I either simply ask for clarification or assume it wasnt meant for me and move on.

[Joshex]

Been on Yahoo news comment section lately or the end of days on the forums? It got bad where people were pointing out simple stuff like per se vs per say (Which maybe I'm missing where mixing those two up can be totally detrimental to the entire message. But if thye know enough where it's supposed to be per se, then by definition didnt thye understand it enough?). Or even misplaced commas, or your vs you're usage, there vs their, which seem to me to be minor non-detrimental to entire message msitakes but the most commonly pointed out mistakes. 

I personally very rarely see anyone post with no caps or punctuations but some dont use paragraphs and yeah that can make reading a bit harder to follow. On the flip side I noticed that the definition of paragraph sometimes equal -length of words and sentences that are no longer than found in a kindergarten book and anything longer is tl:dr (which if they didnt truely read it, and it was truely too long, then how can they say they are responding to the point in even a remotely accurate way (different topic different time)? Or how is posts, most that number 1,000 words or less but rarely over 2,000 words tl;dr yet they are supposedly college grads and professors where 1,000 words is barely enough to cover the opening paragraph to a paper yet expect people to write online in college fashion?)


And yeah you read my thoughts exactly on that. Many of those that point out other mistakes in usually a very insulting manner and question why people get defensive usually end up getting defensive themselves when someone points out their mistakes. But I still think it odd to try and go out the way to correct someone else and give them a lecture on the importance of grammar and stuff yet still make mistakes while trying to tell someone else about puncture and grammar. I think out of all times that is the best time to make sure your stuff and reply is straight before posting about someone else mistakes as although the point may be accurate, it makes the person very less credible, especially if they are throwing the "I'm an English Professor" line in there, two it make it looks like they are searching and nit picking for other's mistakes to get on someone case but so busy in that task of looking for other's mistakes they forget to look at their own before posting, especially if they add the line of "You should use spell check before posting"., and three if added with a condencending tone like most do, it make it as if they seem full of themselves. Like those people that can always find fault in others but think they are flawless when they are not even in the statement they use to correct others. With those types of ingredients to the situation, it probably will cause the target to get defensive majority of the time.

The importance of getting the message across in a manner for readers is very important but there is one bone that many people forget sometimes especially the ones that correct small grammar mistakes that are not detrimental to the message. It's greatly possible that they was not the intended targeted audience. But that is one of the one background things that are never brought up especially in public forums because the question is hardly ever asked. "Am I the intended target audience for this piece?" especially if other seem to be getting it and a reader have a hard time understanding it and try to point out mistakes to make it to where they can understand it. Sometimes that is also an underlying cause of people getting defensive.


And lastly sometimes, a person might just not know any better might be 2nd grader for all we know and that claimed "English Professor" might be nothing more than some high school drop out that is going into his 40s still living parents because he is too lazy to get a job. Might be that the only rise in self-esteem they might be able to get is displaying how bright they are because they self appointed themselves editor of the forum. And many cases, it's just people that means well but again, lack tact in how they go about it and within that group are a few that they feel they cant let simple mistakes go and it's just who they are. And sometimes people forget that English is not everyone first language on the World Wide Web.

Me personally if I cant understand something, which have a high threshold for nonsense and can interpret all types of crazy stuff, I either simply ask for clarification or assume it wasnt meant for me and move on.

People keep criticizing my posts on yahoo when I get scientific, it's really sad, I'll say something profound and they'll criticize me sayign the wont believe it till I fix my typos and grammar.

by the way my keyboard has many broken characters, people don't seem to get that when they see missing 'u's I have to press certain keys extra hard to get them to work.

Well, I'm on the recovery thanks to some comments here. Indeed I just wrote my girlfriend's end of semester report for her and she criticized me for using "too high level words and too good sentence structure - my teacher wont believe it's me who wrote it"

still not perfect though I could have organized it better. I used to think of the plots I write as like moves in a game of chess, naturally my stories were amazingly complex, not the kind of book where you can skip to the bottom of the page to see what will happen after character A stops rambling.

Hehe, I suppose I'll go read through some of my old works, I know those will inspire me, only wish I still had that script I wrote back in 2007.. that thing was crazy. It still exists on my friends computer, but he's got a serious health issue I think it's MS so he rarely has energy for anything. Besides although it's in his computer it's in the form of Vbulletin forum saves (he used to own a forum till we couldn't pay the server fees)

Well, someday. Someday I'll pay him a visit and buy some cheap webspace.

[dwturducken]

My wife and I are both, ironically, having issues with the 'r' key on each of our laptops, so it's fun to hear her pound on hers and curse at it, cuz, as we all know, that's gonna help!

I spend most of my day either on my laptop or in front of a desktop, so I can understand wanting to relax a little when you're on for recreation. My problem is that I was an English major for my first attempt at college. (I'm old enough that I considered print journalism as a career path. ) It made me more than a little anal about my writing/typing, to the point where I will spell/grammar check a post, an in-game chat, even a text before I send it. My wife is currently working on her Ph.D. in English, and even she makes fun of me for it. That, and she says I overuse commas.

[JaguarX]

People keep criticizing my posts on yahoo when I get scientific, it's really sad, I'll say something profound and they'll criticize me sayign the wont believe it till I fix my typos and grammar.

by the way my keyboard has many broken characters, people don't seem to get that when they see missing 'u's I have to press certain keys extra hard to get them to work.

Well, I'm on the recovery thanks to some comments here. Indeed I just wrote my girlfriend's end of semester report for her and she criticized me for using "too high level words and too good sentence structure - my teacher wont believe it's me who wrote it"

still not perfect though I could have organized it better. I used to think of the plots I write as like moves in a game of chess, naturally my stories were amazingly complex, not the kind of book where you can skip to the bottom of the page to see what will happen after character A stops rambling.

Hehe, I suppose I'll go read through some of my old works, I know those will inspire me, only wish I still had that script I wrote back in 2007.. that thing was crazy. It still exists on my friends computer, but he's got a serious health issue I think it's MS so he rarely has energy for anything. Besides although it's in his computer it's in the form of Vbulletin forum saves (he used to own a forum till we couldn't pay the server fees)

Well, someday. Someday I'll pay him a visit and buy some cheap webspace.

Ah the classic "ignore the entire point and post and dismiss it over something irrelevant" move.

It works wonders on the uninitated as then usually the counter arguement ends up being more about the stuff that have been pointed out instead of the material. A convient excuse when they wouldnt believe it either way. It's just convient that the spelling/grammar errors are there for them to use. If it was written perfectly, then they would ask for something else to "convince" their belief. Some go as far as saying "i wont believe it until I see ya certifications and transcripts and 100 dollar processing fee." If they wanted to believe it they would regardless of the mistakes. Wacth them close I bet they gobble up works with more mistakes than yours with no questions asked especially when it reinforces something they already believe in.

I read alot and even in professional works, there is usually a mistake or two. I have yet to find a completely error free published work, even ones that went through Ph D. minds and hands, there dozens of seasoned editors, and professional reviews, prior to publishing. Sometimess works of fiction, mistakes are harder to pin down as many dismiss it as "styling choice." or as part of the character, which may be the case for many fiction works.

[healix]

[Joshex]

[Rust]

What's fun about that list is you can play a game with it. Follow each step of advice with "...unless it is deliberate." The language of the characters needs to flow naturally, and that means common foul ups and the like. It serves the story no good if everyone speaks like robots, standing at rigid attention while never breaking eye contact. ("STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!" for example).

Though the one I really take issue with:

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

I disagree with it, mostly because I owe my verbose vernacular to books. Without the printed medium, my standard of communication would be mundane. No one enjoys mundane vernacular...to a point. While having a few big words sprinkled here and there can help enhance interest and serve as identifiers (There's always a "Smart One"), you do have to know where it's time to be robust and time to get to the point.