When I first became editor-in-chief, I had a coach to support and advise me. The first year in a new role is always challenging. I was trying to do everything right, didn’t want to make any mistakes, and would beat myself up if I slipped up. Some nights, I’d lie awake worrying about substandard articles, poorly printed photos, and – most of all – offhand remarks that I later realised could have been taken the wrong way. “I shouldn’t have made that mistake”, I’d tell my coach. She heard me out but was quick to set me straight: “You’re not God – you’re human, and humans make mistakes.” Making mistakes isn’t the end of the world, she said, as long as you learn from them and are willing to admit when you’re wrong.
God
That phrase, “You’re not God”, still comes up regularly in our editorial meetings. After all, it happens almost every week that something doesn’t go quite according to plan. Nothing catastrophic, but minor and less minor slip-ups that need addressing. Like the first paragraph of an article being printed twice due a copy-paste mishap. Or last week’s outdated photo – I’d chosen it myself – of the French politician Marine Le Pen standing at a lectern marked “Front National” instead of “Rassemblement National”, the name her far-right party has used since 1 June 2018.
Roots in Limburg
And then there’s the classic Dutch “als/dan” error, which recently slipped into an article about fascism. Both the author and the editor on duty (myself) have roots in Limburg, and – as we at Observant know from experience – people from the south of the Netherlands often struggle with the difference between “als” (“as”) and “dan” (“than”). I used to keep a Post-it on my screen as a reminder: “als” expresses equality (“as big as”), “dan” expresses inequality (“bigger than”). But the note disappeared when my screen was replaced, and even if it were still there, I’d forget to check it in a rush.
Annoyed
The other day, we left another common language error – the dreaded “dt” error – in the headline of our newsletter’s lead article. Our weekly newsletter doesn’t usually get many replies, but this time, readers were quick to write in. Two minutes after the newsletter went out on Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m., the first email came in. And they kept coming, even on Thursday. “Did you see…?” “Can you fix this?” We appreciate your attentiveness, but once the newsletter has been sent out, there’s nothing we can do – just like with the printed paper. We were annoyed with ourselves, but the phrase “You’re not God” came up again – this time to console the colleague who, in the rush to meet the deadline, had swapped a “t” for a “d”.