Good analysis; you’ve quickly turned yourself into a detective. 🙂
“I don’t want to give you advice like that” arises curiosity, and that I’ll be getting something different by reading this.
Yep, this is a smart way to show that this won’t be a one-in-a-dozen post with the same useless advice.
Instead of writing the sentence “Or just ask any author on a book deadline…” [which moves the conversation away from the reader to “authors with a book deal” => and how many CB readers can identify with that?], it would have been much better to empathize with the reader.
PS I don’t even understand what he means with his thousand-yard stare?
Enchant readers. Woo customers. Win business.