As I noted a few months back, I handle a series of CIO profiles for the magazine where I work. The CIOs fill out a questionnaire, and I turn their responses into English.
In the earlier post, I mentioned my incredulity that one subject responded to the question, "What business leader would you like to have lunch with?" with the answer "Dagny Taggart" of Taggart Transcontinental Railroad--the fictional creation of Ayn Rand, in the novel Atlas Shrugged. (I should remind you at this point that the publication where I'm copy chief has a circulation of 400,000-plus, and a very-well-trafficked website. And he's a corporate bigwig.)
What I didn't notice till now, because I had a ton of responses to go through and won't be running the Q&A till August, is his response to the very next question.
-- My biggest business-related pet peeve is …
Use of the pronoun "I" in formal business communications.
There you have it, folks: The world's first collectivist Randian.
(As a belated part of our blogoversary extravaganza--by the way, folks, where are my presents?--previous thoughts on things Randian here, here, here, and here.)
1 comment:
Even more surprising: There's no "We" in "I"! Who would have guessed.
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