Month: November 2021

  • Use ‘%%’ to indicate a percentage change of a percentage?

    “40% of people clicked through when the button was blue. When we changed it to green, the click-through rate increased by 20%!” We all know that the above statement is ambiguous; we can’t be sure whether the writer intends to let us know that the final percentage is 60% (40% + 20%) or 48% (40%…

  • Reader-augmented Writing

    Words gave us the ability to effectively share ideas and knowledge, and writing allowed those words to spread further and be carried across time. The printing press accelerated that spread, and electronic mediums allowed even more people to share ideas more quickly. Yet articles and books — even e-books — are still largely static and…