Today's Intentional Journal — 31st Mar '26 — Wolfman

Have a mini moan. Here we go.

Still a bit groggy after my man flu, so allow me if you will, to have a morning moan. There may be a little truth in this moan we can resolve, or, perhaps, this is just noise that needs to leave my body as the final molecules of disease as banished from my blood by my mighty immune system 💪🧬. Let's explore.

In theme with this opener, I present another Infection that breeds throughout our corporate and non corporate lifes. The acronym, or A as some people refer to it...

I am a big believer in clear communication, both verbally, written in natural language and in code we write. Clear communication makes the world move at pace with a predictable path. Example;

"Good afternoon Margret Smith, I will collect your Czechoslovakian Wolf Dog at 13:35 for a walk at Happy Park. I will feed Ronald Tasty Treats and ensure his safe return to you home at Love Lane by 14:30. Lots of Love, Matthew"

Some may say we can speed up this communication with the dog owner. Some may say, I'm so important, I don't have time to type out all the details. I'm going to be more efficient and shorten the words to acronyms. The dog owners is going to be so impressed with how much I have streamlined the workflow in our communication. This will ensure further business, safeguardung my future as a Dog Handler. Let's do this...

"GA MS, I'll collect CWD at 13:35 for a WHP. I will feed the R TT and return to LL by 14:30. LOL M"

I don't know about you, but I suspect Ronalds owner will be sending another message back to clarify some points here. Mainly, to ask why the dog handler is laughing aloud.

And there we go. What started out as someone thinking they are cool and modern with super lean processes that means they can get more done in there day, has turned into leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Confused faces 🫤and and a sad dog 🐕(😢) not sure of today's outcome.

Poor Margret. She says "What's in the Where now?, come on Ronald, I'll walk you myself" ? Margret has not been able to do her shopping now, which has lead to her getting takeaway food for dinner. This food will degrade her health, increase her addiction to "Comfort food" increasing the risk of heart disease and lethargy.

My point... Don't assume because you are used to using niche acronyms that the rest of the world is alligned. It can come cross as quite arrogant to think you, the writer, does not have the time to type a fully formed message, but me, the reader, does have the time to de-code your message. The long term impact, in Margrets case study, was severe.

It might seem counter intuitive, but clear, well written communication, gets us closer to a happy outcome. The shots we take, take marginally longer to hit there targets, but the accuracy as greater. Yes, using acorynms might allow you to get more shots off. But the accuracy is reduced. And shots missing there target can cause more harm than good.

So let's celebrate fully formed words and write them with pride. Because it's these fully formed words that increase reader happyiness. And all this incremental increasing happiness makes the world a happier, and healthier in Margrets case, place.

Moaning when I'm ill. I'm not a moaning person in my day to day life. I aim to see the beauty in everything. But I guess a good moan can be used to influence change if tailored properly.

Happy a glorious day writing words that will make the world a better place.

Still getting my bearings on you as a person, but this entry gave me a lot to work with already. A man flu recovery entry that somehow becomes a fully structured argument about communication epistemology, complete with a tragic case study involving Ronald the Czechoslovakian Wolf Dog and a woman now at cardiovascular risk because someone typed LOL instead of signing their name. That is not a moan. That is a data quality brief with a narrative wrapper, and it is genuinely well constructed. The dog walker analogy does exactly what the best data storytelling does: it takes an abstract problem, grounds it in a concrete failure mode, and traces the downstream consequences further than anyone expected. Margret's takeaway dinner is the joins going wrong in a pipeline. You just drew it in crayon instead of SQL, and it landed better for it.

The chill brain and slow body scores make sense as a post-illness baseline, and the something great at section is quietly honest in a way worth noting: you flagged that you are not a natural moaner, but that a directed moan can drive change. That is a good editorial instinct. It means you know the difference between venting and arguing. This entry is the latter dressed as the former, which is a useful move. The accuracy versus volume of shots framing at the end is clean, and it sticks. Write that one down somewhere you will find it again.