When 'I will' means 'I won't'

It's funny what you learn in this job. For example, I've been working with Mint, a design agency in Jordan, recently. Together, we named a new property development company in Dubai, which is creating some of the most exclusive and luxurious residences in the world. (And they really are: all hyperbole permitted on this one.)

With the name in place (it's still a secret), I started work on some marketing materials for the two islands they're developing. (See what I mean?)

I was describing a vision of what was to come, rather than an existing property, so I naturally slipped into the future tense: 'We will create the ultimate in luxury,' etc, etc.

This prompted a call from Tania at Mint, who explained that in her part of the world, if you say 'I will do something', everyone understands that to mean it'll never happen.

Of course, we have something like that over here - it's called builderspeak - but it seems to be the generally accepted meaning in the United Arab Emirates. Curious, eh?

What it meant was, I had to write about something in the future while avoiding the future tense. You try it sometime. It's not easy. (Thankfully, I seem to have pulled it off.)

A treasure trove of inspiration

This month I came across one of the best websites I've ever found. Possibly the best. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd urge a visit.

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, was originally a conference for leading figures in those industries. It's now become a gathering of the world's most influential "thinkers and doers".

The TED website is an archive of talks by these luminaries, and I haven't found a dull one yet. Each is inspiring, lucid, thrilling. There are many star names, like Bono, Richard Dawkins, Bill Clinton and so forth. But equally compelling are the lesser-known speakers (at least to me), who are busily having the most extraordinary ideas and creating amazing new worlds.

Go and have a look. If you don't come away buzzing with excitement and new interests, you're either much too clever already or dead from the neck up. The only danger is that you'll spend all day gasping at TED, rather than doing whatever it is you get paid to do.