Good Words — Phrases and Concepts Worth Stealing
Summary
Ray’s running collection of phrases, quotes, and jargon that carry weight. Some are borrowed wisdom, others are original framings. Useful as newsletter fodder, copywriting raw material, and vocabulary for the Ray Data Co brand voice.
Original Framings
”Cohesive Autonomy”
No definition captured, but the phrase itself is a powerful concept — teams that move independently while staying aligned. Worth developing into a full article.
”This business is my wedge I use to push the world in a better direction”
What Ray teaches on the site and the products he makes are used by professionals to improve processes and insights. Those businesses improve and impact their communities. A purpose statement worth keeping close.
”Sanity Check” as Newsletter Name
A “sanity check” is when an analyst bumps a new number against a number they know is right — helps them feel their methodology “is sane.” Ray’s note: “Wouldn’t that be a fun newsletter name?”
Borrowed Wisdom
- “Brain Sweat” (Patrick McKenzie / Patio11) — What a person chooses to intellectually grind on. “There is not enough brain sweat given to automating accounting.”
- “The problem hasn’t changed. You’ve gotten better.” — Dad
- “In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice they are not.” — No replacement for doing the work.
- “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” — Oscar Wilde
- “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” — W. Edwards Deming
- “Easier to earn more than to cut your way to hit a level of income” — It’s easier to grow the top line than the bottom line. Apparently holds true once you figure out how to make money.
- “We pretended to work while they pretended to pay us” — Old USSR worker on communism.
Analyst Jargon Worth Capturing
- Top-side or plug — manual adjustment to make numbers work
- “Directionally Correct” — close enough to trust the direction
- Material / Immaterial — significance thresholds
- “Snowball” or “bridge” — how individual numbers compound (e.g., ARR snowball)
- Rule of 78 — there are 78 periods that make up a year (1+2+…+12); supports the insight that “a dollar gained today is a dollar gained tomorrow”
Tips for Stealing Words
From the craft of writing:
- Learn definition(s)
- Study origins
- Find example usages