Five Drafts

Hello, friends.

Spring officially kicked off in NC yesterday. I think she slept in, though. It was below freezing this morning.

How are things with you? Family well? Any travel or big plans coming up?

It’s a busy season in our household. My youngest (Matthew) has a big fourth-grade project wrapping up tonight called “Faces of History.” Over the last few months, he’s chosen a person from the Middle Ages (this year’s time period) as his subject, written a short research paper citing multiple sources, and prepared an oral presentation to give in front of his classmates and their parents.

My wife (Sherry) is the tutor for the class, and in addition to working with him, she's co-leading the event coordination.

I’ve mostly observed Matthew’s project and provided feedback when asked. The best part of the experience, from my perspective, is how much he’s learned about telling stories and editing.

Since the paper required multiple sources and had a length constraint, his first draft was way too long. There were all kinds of cool events and facts about the subject he earmarked to write about. With Sherry’s help, he revised multiple drafts — doing the hard work of culling the paper down to the essentials without sacrificing the story.

It reminds me of the “five drafts” exercise I stole from Jason Fried when I taught a collegiate writing class. Good writing (and communication) can largely be attributed to good editing.

Is work going well? Any big wins or losses?

Me?

Nothing big to report right now, but we do have a lot of activity. Most of our momentum is due to Marty and me reprioritizing our schedules toward the highest value work we can do for Calm Capital. There was simply too much opportunity cost for the business in us not working on the right things.

Alright. It’s been great catching up for now.

Talk soon.
David