It's about perception not reality
Notes on the em dash. See you in 2026!!
I’ve become more unhinged in official Three Point Four Media correspondence this year. This started right around the 4th of July. Double exclamation points instead of one. Stuff like “lil’” and “y’all” and “we got you!!” in email, Slacks, and texts to clients. Just riffing folks!! I’m still professional, but I’m leaning more into my goofy and rambling midwestern self. Infusing the client services world with a little bit of fun. We have fun around here!!
This is all by design. I don’t want to be one of those guys who affixes this was written by a real human to all my output. I want people to know when they read an email that Billy wrote it, whether it’s a stranger I’m cold calling, an old editor, or a longtime client.
People ask us about A.I. every day. How does it impact your work? Are you worried you will be replaced by LLMs? How is it changing what you do? The answer is: Not much! We’re not luddites, but we’re also bullish that what we do here at TPF (good writing and nuanced storytelling grounded in research and strategy) will be more in demand and more valued in 2026. That in an onslaught of A.I. slop people and businesses prefer their words are written by actual humans.
Earlier this year, after I passionately defended my love for—and frequent use of—the em dash, Noah very astutely told me why I had to cut them out of all TPF official channels and client work: It’s about perception not reality. He’s right. Overnight, I begrudgingly removed them from my toolbox. Now I just write two sentences, instead of stringing together two related thoughts with a handsome and aesthetically pleasing em dash. The machines did this to me. And I’m okay with that.
The Times Magazine recently explored the easily distinguishable voice and tics of AI. It’s an excellent story that gets into the grating voice of AI and how pervasive it is online and you should read the entire thing, but I am going to highlight a passage about em dashes for the purposes of this newsletter:
“Within the A.I.’s training data, the em dash is more likely to appear in texts that have been marked as well-formed, high-quality prose. A.I. works by statistics. If this punctuation mark appears with increased frequency in high-quality writing, then one way to produce your own high-quality writing is to absolutely drench it with the punctuation mark in question. So now, no matter where it’s coming from or why, millions of people recognize the em dash as a sign of zero-effort, low-quality algorithmic slop.”
The em-dash is too good for the machines. It’s its own worst enemy. Long live the em dash—but only in my many group chats.
Onto the links.
A project
A good one: The annual Acumen America year-end letter. This is a prime example of how we work and what we’re best at. We talked with Acumen America managing partners Catherine Casey Nanda and Amon Anderson about themes in their work from 2025, then turned that phone call into a first draft. From there, the four of us worked on revisions async, via Slack, and over Zoom. We’re really happy with how this one turned out.
“When you combine good ideas, good people, and good infrastructure, good things happen even in difficult times.”
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A concert
I saw Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band last Friday. Excellent show. Their album New Threats from the Soul was one of my favorite records from 2025, even though it didn’t click at first because I found Davis’ voice slightly off-putting. I could listen to him read the phonebook now. The Roadhouse Band has everything from a middle-aged white guy’s dreams: Pedal steel, synthesizers, rambling clever lyrics about the human condition, a melodica! I can’t wait to see them again.
Billy’s Song of the Year:
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An article
I share nearly everything Amanda Petrusich writes for The New Yorker in my bi-weekly dispatch of this newsletter and her July profile of Ryan Davis feels fitting as my last recommendation of 2025. She’s the best music writer going right now. Two quotes that really stuck with me:
“The humor really came through first for me,” MJ Lenderman told me recently. “Ryan’s way more articulate than I am, even when he’s talking about, like, Jet Skis.” Lenderman described their tour together as a joy: “Seeing him perform every night really lit us up, because he’s such a good performer. His stage presence blew my mind. It was like Jim Carrey in ‘The Mask’ or something.”
And the way Petrusich describes Davis’ music and how it surprises the soul:
Nothing is exactly where or what you expect it to be, and nothing stays still for very long.
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A ski
The running shoes are in the basement, and the Thule box is on top of the Subaru. That’s right: It’s cross country ski season here in Michigan. The Upper Midwest has some of the best early-season conditions this millennium. We have over four feet of snow in Northern Michigan. I’m in heaven.
Thanks for listening. TPF is taking a lil’ break over the holidays to reset. We’ll see y’all in the new year!!
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