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How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

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Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#101

Post by stackbutterflow »

_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Regarding 1, something I've noticed on HN is the overuse of some adverbs. "Absolutely" comes to mind. "I absolutely agree" could as well be "I agree".

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#102

Post by bspear »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #101
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Regarding 1, something I've noticed on HN is the overuse of some adverbs. "Absolutely" comes to mind. "I absolutely agree" could as well be "I agree".

True, I wonder if it's driven by people's need to over-express over the internet since there's no body language

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#103

Post by kranner »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #101
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Regarding 1, something I've noticed on HN is the overuse of some adverbs. "Absolutely" comes to mind. "I absolutely agree" could as well be "I agree".

I don't know; "absolutely" can add emphasis. Advising someone not to use it because "agree" covers it anyway feels like trying to suppress their personality. We're communicating, not playing language golf.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#104

Post by kranner »

photochemsyn wrote: post #31

One useful first step in becoming a better writer - in particular if your subject is complex - is to to delete your Twitter account and never look at another Twitter thread. Character limits kill creativity and complexity. The presentation does leave out one very necessary requirement for becoming a good-to-great writer: you have to do a lot of reading. If you're going to write about a complex scientific or technical…

> Twitter doesn't allow for paragraphs, just sentences (and short ones at that). Paragraphs should have an internal cohesion to help the reader absorb the concept being presented. Once you have that, you can start chaining paragraphs together, reordering the sequence of paragraphs, with the goal of constructing a path that the reader can follow through the whole essay or chapter. Getting the order right is important for complex topics, as point D might rely on a good understanding of points A and B, and so on. Your goal should be to make the reader feel smart.

You are describing 'tweet threads' (formerly 'tweetstorms'). They are a popular format for long-form writing on Twitter.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#105

Post by westcort »

enigmatic02 wrote: post #92
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Disagreed with 5, it's too prescriptive. Lots of great writers use progressive disclosure to keep people hooked Being unselfish also helps with building great products. Reminds me of this article, treat your reader like a customer: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/improve-business-writ...

This is great! Here are my takeaways from that article.

1. Easy writing makes for hard reading; invest in editing and treat your reader like a customer

2. What’s the biggest difference between great writers and all the rest? It’s not talent, it’s treating the process like a product

3. Make it skimmable; expect that your reader is busy

4. Every word should serve a purpose

5. Your points should fit like a jigsaw puzzle, each connected to another

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#106

Post by maroonblazer »

enigmatic02 wrote: post #92
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Disagreed with 5, it's too prescriptive. Lots of great writers use progressive disclosure to keep people hooked Being unselfish also helps with building great products. Reminds me of this article, treat your reader like a customer: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/improve-business-writ...

I don't think progressive disclosure applies in the cases the author is discussing.

Slide 8: "Most of the writing in the world is for information." Readers looking for information aren't interested in being teased to keep reading. That's a recipe for 'unhooking' them. They want to know what the author thinks they should know.

No pussyfooting.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#107

Post by stackbutterflow »

kranner wrote: post #103
stackbutterflow wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding 1, something I've noticed on HN is the overuse of some adverbs. "Absolutely" comes to mind. "I absolutely agree" could as well be "I agree".

I don't know; "absolutely" can add emphasis. Advising someone not to use it because "agree" covers it anyway feels like trying to suppress their personality. We're communicating, not playing language golf.

I feel that it dilutes the meaning of whatever comes after. "I agree" conveys a stronger tone than "I absolutely agree". Same as "I love you" is more powerful than "I absolutely love you". I see it as a filler word that doesn't add anything to the sentence. It's subjective I know. Also I would add that if you "absolutely [verb]" all the time you might as well [verb].

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#108

Post by muh_gradle »

itsmemattchung wrote: post #6
yeetsfromhellL2 wrote: post #3

I like this. I'm diving into the zettlekasten thing after reading How to Take Smart Notes , and stopping to think about how I write so that it's as simple and clear as possible, while still being informative enough for my future self is what flexes my head muscle the most. This complements it nicely.

How to Take Smart Notes is hands down one of my favorite books and I incorporate a lot of the lessons learned in both my personal and professional life.

It sounds like I need to add this to my list. Thanks

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#109

Post by kwyjibo1230 »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #101
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Regarding 1, something I've noticed on HN is the overuse of some adverbs. "Absolutely" comes to mind. "I absolutely agree" could as well be "I agree".

I try to remove common enhancing adverbs when writing emails at work. Removing "very," "definitely," "absolutely," etc. makes professional communication come across more authoritatively and clearly. I still use adverbs to be clear, but they need to communicate something specific that is otherwise hard to articulate.
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