21–30 of 182 posts
Something a boss of mine told me once was, after drafting an email, re-read it and cut its length roughly in half. If an email isn’t succinct, no one will read it fully.
omit needless words
If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy> And remember, if you're writing in English, that a lot of your readers won't be native English speakers Just because some readers might not be proficient in English, we have to write plainly to accommodate them? What if they are seeking prose that makes them better at the language? This is a classic symptom of not having read enough literature. There is a visceral beauty in writing, and trying to place conditions o…
I'm convinced there are two broad camps of people: those who see writing merely as a means to an end, those who view it as an artform. The people in the first camp tend to focus on some fabricated idea of concrete meaning (they tend to think the meanings of words are more rigid than they actually are), they emphasize simple words and love economy of prose. They tend to pump out business-speak articles and like using…
We write to communicate, but the way we write can communicate something as well. Style, word choice, punctuation also say something to the reader.
Reducing language to the lowest common denominator risks losing complex thoughts that are best communicated in complex language.
At the end of the day, know your audience. Are you communicating something to the largest possible group of people or people interested in a niche topic that you're passionate about?
I get that this guy is like rich and famous and founded this website or something so people always post his stuff here but his writing always has this weird veneer of pseudo intellectual philosophy that I find very off putting.
pg has some decent takes on programming and one day decided that he might also have takes on things he knows far less about. These latter takes don't tend to be very good, which is unfortunate because he does actually manage to influence people.
Also invent words wherever you can: https://twitter.com/chiefchimpanzee/status/16157090455785062...
Actually this is a point if you are not writing in English. My dad used to do some technical translations and he disliked English namely because you cannot invent words like in Danish or German, where you can just put words together to make a new one.
> And remember, if you're writing in English, that a lot of your readers won't be native English speakers Just because some readers might not be proficient in English, we have to write plainly to accommodate them? What if they are seeking prose that makes them better at the language? This is a classic symptom of not having read enough literature. There is a visceral beauty in writing, and trying to place conditions o…
Enhancing reach only makes sense if you have a message. The envelope for that message might also be passionate, sincere, vivid, playful, challenging, informative, and perhaps most of all - enjoyable for the writer. But it must be addressed to something.
Let's return to that first sentence. Writing is a technology.
Most of the images Paul Graham's piece invokes, of dragging a heavy, tedious train behind me, apply more to any computer technology than writing. Show me today one piece of digital writing (code) that is simple, universal, transparent, and durable.
There is a line between Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and Postman's "Seven Questions About Technology", and somewhere on it is point where we ask "What is it's sincere and honest purpose?" As mobile technology and social media show, I think we've lost track of purpose and gotten obsessed with the form itself.
> And remember, if you're writing in English, that a lot of your readers won't be native English speakers Just because some readers might not be proficient in English, we have to write plainly to accommodate them? What if they are seeking prose that makes them better at the language? This is a classic symptom of not having read enough literature. There is a visceral beauty in writing, and trying to place conditions o…
In a similar vein, I got to the word "saltimbocca", two paragraphs in, and was painfully and utterly bored. And frankly, skimming the rest, I found most of the "conclusions" rather insulting. Imagine a world where fancy words can both give a simple idea, as well as provide a deeper meaning to those that look. Indeed some of the most profound and lasting prose is that which paints a scene in your mind. So what brings…