I was on a year's retainer with a company that has played a leading role in the development of the PC. My job was to write about things that hadn't happened yet. That meant there were about five people in the whole company who could give me useful input, and for everybody else, their guess was as good as mine.
I'm on a conference call with about ten people who are pushing me for a publishable document by the following Wednesday. I'm saying that's fine, but I have to have content--somebody has to tell me what to say. The topic is something that hasn't been announced yet. They tell me only Mr. X knows what the story is. They check his calendar and make an appointment for me on the following Friday.
"Great," I say, "So what's my deadline?"
"Wednesday, like the schedule says."
"So...first draft to you on Wednesday, input for the first draft on Friday?"
"Yes. The schedule is what it is."
This is the kind of moment I live for. I think logic is vastly overrated, and here we had a chance to jump completely off the logic grid. I would write the piece, we would stay on schedule, and then I would get the input for the piece.
This company has a website you can mine six ways from Sunday. The trade press also works hard to cover their forward direction. And bless the bloggers who are trying to be the first to predict what's going to happen next. I rounded up lots of jargon from the website, some well-sourced analysis from the trade press, and the predictions of a couple of bloggers who were tech-savvy enough to follow known developments to their logical conclusion.
I wrote the piece, submitted it on Wednesday, got it approved on Thursday, and had my input interview with Mr. X on Friday.
When you're granted an hour on the phone with one of the key knowers in an organization that's pushing the frontiers of technology, it's amazing how liberating it is to know that the reason he agreed to speak with you in the first place has already been satisfied.
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