Talking about Talking about
by Jerry Weissman



In yesterday’s New York Times, the editors ran an article called “Charlie Sheen Deconstructed” which listed a collection of opinions about the troubled actor and his many recent media appearances airing his dirty laundry. The article described the collection as “analysis of the analysis” and included: 

• Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show 
• Jacob Weisberg in Slate 
• Willa Paskin in New York magazine’s “Vulture Blog” 
• Adam Sternbergh in the New York Times Magazine blog 
• Walter Kirn on his blog

And even: 

• Charlie Sheen himself on Twitter

Each of these six opinions shared a common theme: they were talking about talking about Charlie Sheen—and they amounted to a tiny drop compared to the tsunami in the media on the subject. Moreover, the first five opinions said that there was far too much talk about Charlie Sheen, but they were doing so by talking more about Charlie Sheen!

This is very much like presenters who talk about talking about their subject, using phrases such as: 

• “I’d like to…” 
• “The subject of my talk today is…” 
• “Like I said…” 
• “This is a busy slide . . .”
• “Before I begin…”

Each of these phrases is completely unnecessary. Worse, each of them is an apology. Drop them from your vocabulary and follow Nike’s advice:

“Just do it!”