I am not satisfied with the result of the last pass at a tagline, which is this:
The past, present, and future of work, and its impact on society and our lives.
Seems too generic to me, not specifically what value I am bringing to it. I am not a reporter, after all. I am an advocate, not a chair. An iconoclast, not a talking head.
What I liked about the old tagline was that it mentioned various scientific domains, because I gravitate toward scientific explanations, such as those arising from economics, sociology, and psychology:
The ecology of work, and the anthropology of the future.
I have this paragraph on the current About page here (which will likely remain in an updated version):
My approach is not rah-rah aspirational mumbo-jumbo intended to motivate would-be business leaders, a recapitulation of the sayings of famous entrepreneurs, or the tired repetition of conventional, bronze age wisdom. As my decades of writing shows, I'm interested in digging into the economics, politics, history, technologies, and future of work, from the viewpoint of the individual, the workforce, and the business, and I have little tolerance for unsupported biases masquerading as universal truth.
And there is a political dimension as well since I am advocating for a new way of work, not the status quo, although I don’t want to drag down the tagline with my own personal dogma or terminology. A tagline should not require a dictionary.
One thing missing in the soon-to-be-former tagline is the sense that we are in a time of tremendous change, in all spheres and societies, around work. So…
The economics, sociology, and politics of work, at a time of accelerating discontinuity in society, business, and our lives.
A little more edge to it.
Update: 2022-07-29
Another recasting of the tagline, inspired by Shira Ovide's 'The Word of the Year Is ‘Uncertainty’' and the interchange with Bec, below, in the comments:
The economics, politics, and ecology of work, in a time of accelerating uncertainty in society, business, and our lives.
Because it’s not just discontinuity caused by change, but that we seem to be flying blind.
Nice, definitely has more bite. I'd suggest removing the commas before the 'ands', partly for grammatical accuracy but also because it'll streamline the sentence and make it less compartmentalised.
I'm not sure about 'discontinuity', mainly because it raises questions about meaning which distracts from the cleanness of the rest of the line. Would swapping it for a simple 'change' work? ie "at a time of accelerating change in society, business and our lives."
I ran 2 Warm Data Labs (Nora Bateson) yesterday, where the ecology of crises became moe and more stark. I wonder if you're limiting yourself in only talking about economics, socioloy and politics...
Another Try At A Tagline
Nice, definitely has more bite. I'd suggest removing the commas before the 'ands', partly for grammatical accuracy but also because it'll streamline the sentence and make it less compartmentalised.
I'm not sure about 'discontinuity', mainly because it raises questions about meaning which distracts from the cleanness of the rest of the line. Would swapping it for a simple 'change' work? ie "at a time of accelerating change in society, business and our lives."
Awesome.
What about a shorter version?
“ The economics, sociology, and politics of work in disruptive times”
(or sthg similar)
I ran 2 Warm Data Labs (Nora Bateson) yesterday, where the ecology of crises became moe and more stark. I wonder if you're limiting yourself in only talking about economics, socioloy and politics...
The economics, sociology, and politics of work, at a time of accelerating lifestyle discontinuity.