Was there ever a more pernicious statement than “you get what you pay for”? How many times have you sat in a $250 plane seat and find out the guy sitting next you paid $129? How often have you discovered, too late, that you didn’t have to pay that much for that steak? Or to have that website re-vamped?

Or consider “crime doesn’t pay”: did the person who spun that yarn even read history? … Hello? And how about that howler “cheaters never prosper”? Of course they do — even if the cheaters don’t recognize themselves as such because they feel entitled and may even have the power to set or change the rules that legalize their personal advantage.

Oh, that’s so depressing. Just ignore that. What you don’t know won’t hurt you, right? Oops, there we go again.

The problem with truisms such as these is they don’t make it all the way to the truth. Good writing helps brings you to that point.

Good writing is inseparable from the truth. As such, its purpose is less to communicate (anyone can spread lies) than to prompt clear thinking. You can’t do that if you lazily rely on cliche and superstition.

So when you find yourself in need of thoughtful professional writing, rely on PubArts instead.