Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

A Reading List for the Culturally Curious

“Looking at life from a different perspective makes you realize that it's not the deer that is crossing the road, rather it's the road that is crossing the forest.” Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., Muhammad Ali was an activist and philanthropist who became known in America and the world as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. His convictions cost him at least four years of peak performance. Sports Illustrated declared the heavyweight “Sportsman of the Century” in 1999. Ali won numerous awards throughout his career. But it was his appeal that won him a large following. As... Read more →

Writing Clarity: Why Blogs are Still Useful

“PowerPoint-style presentations somehow give permission to gloss over ideas, flatten out any sense of relative importance, and ignore the interconnectedness of ideas.” Clarity is really hard to pull off by bullet points. I've long believed that decks are the visual effects of a conversation or keynote: you make the case by talking. It's effective, but not very efficient in productivity terms. Writing is the most efficient medium for shaping an argument and communicating it. I forgot where I got the quote above, it had something to do with Jeff Bezos' culture of narrative clarity instituted by the memo. Amazon's senior... Read more →