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> 13 employee layoff at a 90 employee

Let's rephrase that to 14% to sound more impactful

> 14% to sound more impactful

What makes you say that? I don't understand why the percentage figure would carry more weight. I look at 13/90 my brain says "roughly twenty percent", which is too much. Perhaps some people, equally innumerate as I, misjudge the other way. Either way, the facts remain the same.

Do you think numbers expressed as percentages have a different psychological effect? Maybe they sound more authoritative or clever?

It would carry more weight to someone who has never heard of Substack or doesn't know how big a company it is. They'd assume it was a large company because of who was reporting about it.

Ah yes, they're hiding the body count. Makes sense now.

I know what substack is and I fell for it.

13 people losing their jobs isn’t national news and they know it.

Clearly whoever titled the article thought it would have more impact. There's a lot of juicy ambiguity behind 14%. A percentage of what? A layman isn't going to know that it's only a 90 person company. They do know that 14% layoffs at a big company is something to get up in arms about.

Definitely psychological in my opinion.

How about:

Substack fires every 7th employee!

Septimated.

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