Also, it’s not a lie at all, which, in my advice column, is almost unheard of. STEP THREE Maybe you should make Pitman Shorthand cool! It’s kind of perfect for teenagers when you think about it.

Over time, a growing list of abbreviations added to the speed of Pitman notation, and the standard attainment became set at 140 words a minute, allegedly the rate of “normal” speech in English.