One of the best bosses I ever had passed away recently, losing his year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
He hired me in my first editorial job after twelve years of teaching. He showed me the ropes of content management, startups, business 101, working with an engineering team, and so much more.
Every day at lunch we'd talk politics, books, art, writing, travel, pop culture. Endless discussions with endless drops of knowledge on endless topics.
He also was a clever wordsmith. A phrase he taught me that I still use today:
"Error of emphasis"
It's when someone takes the focus away from the main point of an issue, and deflects to a minor or irrelevant point.
Like when people want to focus on how a White woman had her dog taken away instead of how she weaponized her racism against a Black man.
Like when people want to talk about Black people looting Target instead of Black people being murdered by police officers.
These are errors of emphasis.
Sometimes they're made unknowingly, carelessly, accidentally.
And sometimes they're made intentionally and maliciously to avoid emphasizing what needs to be emphasized.
Don't let your discomfort, lack of fluency, and fear lead you astray. Stay in the conversation.
Don't make an error of emphasis.
Your errors could be costly.