But the nub of his argument is in a firm commitment to his dual identity.
The nub of his argument is that the "heroin" of cheap money has corrupted the U.S. economy.
"Making" is the word in Mr Esterly's title, and it is the nub of his book.
But that doesn't express the nub of his attitude to the world and to human behaviour.
The nub for his company, which runs a project management service, is that balance is about the wellbeing of his staff, and means more than just productivity.
But Miliband did get close to the nub of his party's challenge: Labour's 1m votes in Scotland are crucial to the results, he said.
The nub of his grievance was that they had rocketed to stardom without "driving up and down the M1 in a van for 15 years".
The nub of his story is always placed four-fifths of the way in, leaving the final fifth for the drawing of lessons.
Ornette Coleman's music for acoustic quartet -- the nub of his conception of jazz -- has been winnowed down to almost pure outpourings of melody.
However, the nub of his defence – he's just a person who "ballsed up" in an industry built on worse – is one with which most of his colleagues will sympathise.
