The internet now has one extremely competent author

You have met him. He writes every corporate website, most LinkedIn posts and a growing proportion of articles explaining the future of work.

He is clear. He is positive. He loves a colon. He believes every subject contains three key challenges and five actionable insights. Nothing has ever merely changed; it has fundamentally reshaped the landscape. He never swears, contradicts himself or remembers something embarrassing halfway through a paragraph. He has no childhood, no grudges, no favourite bus route and no idea why the small detail in the corner is often the only thing worth writing about.

Pew’s research is discussed in the Long Read, with the necessary sampling caveat. Here, the point is a familiar editorial experience: vast amounts of professional prose can feel as though they have passed through the same polite digestive tract.

This will eventually make imperfect writing a status symbol. Tangents will become provenance. A slightly odd metaphor will reassure the reader that somebody was awake. The typo may return as artisanal produce.

Not this one, obviously. This one is deliberate.