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Here's something you don't hear every day: "Recessions are good."

At least, that's what Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, told Tech Conference attendees this morning during his general session presentation.

While the phrasing was startling, Shapiro's real point was that tough choices are healthy. He argued that recessions force businesses to take a good, hard look at what they are doing in ways that they might not during better times. (Which does beg the question: Why don't we do a better job of making those tough choices when the economy is good? I

Four other points Shapiro made that stuck out at me:

- Speak and write in plain English. "I believe in brevity," he said. "Strunk and White is my bible." Shapiro says that when he writes for his board members, he makes his main point up front in a single sentence and tries to keep additional background and contextual information to a page or less. (Perhaps Twitter is good practice for us all!)

- Think three years ahead. "That's where trends and changes are," he said. "You need to be thinking about trends and jump on them." As a sidenote: When Shapiro was introduced, Reggie Henry mentioned that CES (Shapiro's association's well-known tradeshow) is less than a month out. But Shapiro pointed out that he's actually spent more time thinking about CES 2012 this week than about CES 2011.

- Mistakes are healthy. Shapiro said that mistakes are incredible learning opportunities--but the real mistake many people make is to try to sweep them under the rug rather than transparently admitting to and learning from them.

- Don't create an app just to create an app. In fact, don't do anything just because everyone is doing it--build an app or a website or a blog because it makes sense for your organization's goals and the audiences you're trying to reach. "Go slowly," he said, "but pay attention."