The orators in ancient Greece and Rome recognized the magic of rhythm. They noticed that the cadence of an expression could have a huge influence on an audience[. Cicero was especially fond of one of the more powerful rhythms, the paean. We think of the paean today as a song or poem that praises, gives thanks, or celebrates a triumph. But it first meant words that heal.

The Latin root of “radical” is radix, meaning root. (Only a total nerd would find that last sentence delightful; you’re welcome. Or I’m sorry.)

We all need to practice time health.

Write these special effects to yank your audience into the scene.

More than just a quibble, it’s a reason we elevate the greedy and destroy the planet.

In Athens, after some searching I found the womb of democracy: the hillside called Pnyx (pronounced “Neex.”) There, the great Greek orators spoke to a boisterous crowd of as many as 15,000 Athenians. (The word Pnyx comes from pyknos, meaning “dense,” presumably referring to the packed-in citizens and not to their mental state.)

Grande grandly performs one of my favorite figures of irony. Just to make sure you’re not too entertained, here’s some good-for-you rhetoric 101.

They're the secret to framing. You can use this trio to win any issue.

It’s way better than the boring “and then…”

I’ve begun a Substack newsletter about rhetoric, called Aristotle’s Guide to Soul Bending. In my latest post, I talk about the college essay, and how writing it could change your life—even if you’re not applying to college.

The history of inventions is full of triumphal screwups. Doors carelessly left open. Or unlocked by the gods, letting in flies, criminals, scary winds…and great creations. Inspiration rarely comes from a bolt from the blue.

Inspiration, I think, is an individual phenomenon. We can wait for it, prompt it, play with combinations of existing ideas—or, in this post, refine a half-formed idea into a Platonic ideia of your intentions.

I used “model thinking” to write my novel. Writing fiction really is a form of modeling. You describe a set of characters and put them in a particular situation; in AI parlance, you “train” your story. Then you determine the likeliest course of action for each character. You’re building a model.

To get inspired to solve a problem, you want to define the problem as precisely as you want. In rhetoric, we call the problem the exigence: the exact thing that needs solving.

When I think about the best ideas I’ve had, most of them didn’t come out of the blue. Instead, my new idea simply combined two other ideas—usually not my own. It’s a matter of compounding, combining two elements to make a different…thought molecule?

A new idea can come from any of these four sources: Compounding, Modeling, Refining, and Receiving. In this first of several posts, I talk about inspiration, ideas, and how not all inspiration involves ideas in the first place.

The three habits: 1) Openness. 2) Combination and discovery. 3) Bad writing. It’s amazing how easy number three is. And how hard we find number one.

Educators are understandably freaking out about robots writing students’ papers for them. But maybe, just maybe, there’s an opportunity here.

Arguments often involve people who agree with you, but don’t see the issue as a priority. What can you do to up level of passion?

The backronym starts with a word and then tortures other words to make…a word. Now you try!