{"id":4489,"date":"2025-11-03T01:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=4489"},"modified":"2025-10-18T07:11:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:11:46","slug":"their-point-of-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2025\/11\/their-point-of-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Their Point of View"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>An old book refreshes how to write to someone else.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I recently found an old book\u2014old meaning 40 years old. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0385182163?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title\">&#8220;How to use the power of the printed word&#8221;<\/a> was published in 1985. It comprises a dozen essays from famous folks of that day about writing and reading and such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am still early in the collection of essays. The first essay is from Malcolm Forbes. He writes about writing a business letter. His little bit of advice is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Write the entire letter from his point of view<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter is about the other person. It is from their point of view about their situation in their life and their business with their people. Instead of beginning with, &#8220;My name is Dwayne and I want a job working for you.&#8221; Begin with, &#8220;You have built an organization of folks who serve the public with your great public-serving things&#8230; I wish to work alongside your folks and serve the public&#8230;&#8221; Or something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is about the other person\u2014not me. Sure, I come in later, but I come in later. The other person is first. Describe the other person&#8217;s situation. Describe the change that I can bring as if the change already exists. That means to write in the present tense. &#8220;Your folks know linear algebra and that allows them to do this and that to better serve the public.&#8221; Later, I wish to bring my background in linear algebra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is about the other person. Simple. Easy to forget. Let&#8217;s not forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dwayne Phillips An old book refreshes how to write to someone else. I recently found an old book\u2014old meaning 40 years old. &#8220;How to use the power of the printed word&#8221; was published in 1985. It comprises a dozen essays from famous folks of that day about writing and reading and such. I am [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,32,434,10,5],"tags":[225,154,437,133,128],"class_list":["post-4489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clarity","category-communication","category-other","category-people","category-writing","tag-clarity","tag-communication","tag-other","tag-people","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4490,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions\/4490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}