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Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

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Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#51
post #38

The summary first style of writing is a hack to enable quick trust establishment. It doesn't work for all concepts and it's unlikely to be effective for communicating very complex and innovative subjects. Also, some things just have to be shown visually to be trusted. A paragraph explaining an anti-gravity device isn't going to cut it. You need to show it working in person where there can be no doubt it's doing what…

> The summary first style of writing is a hack to enable quick trust establishment. It doesn't work for all concepts and it's unlikely to be effective for communicating very complex and innovative subjects. This is literally the point of an abstract in any and every respected scientific journal I've ever read.

And key to how to efficiently read journals: Read the abstract. If still interested, read the conclusion. If still interested, read the whole thing.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#52

Read your writing out loud to yourself, carefully observing the punctuation. You won't become Hemingway, but you will find the most obvious flaws in your writing.

Read your writing out aloud. Carefully observing the meter of the verse.

You won't become Hemingway. But you will seem quite odd to nearby work mates.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#53

Are there good classes one can take online which teach someone how to get through writing anxiety? Or how to write despite the fact that you cannot really ever know how your audience will interpret what you are saying?

IMO, it's not writing that you're necessarily struggling with, but editing afterwards. Good writing is a process that includes time to think about that writing. The answer is to write a lot. After you go through a certain volume of text, you get a better feel for it. Andy Weir wrote "the Martian" and he was an amateur; he set daily writing goals (word counts) and stuck to them.

Reducing amount of written text is not something reporters/writers do easily, because to them every word is sacred, because they wrote it and removing words would always amount to loss of detail. Good editors manage to reduce that text and still sharpen the message. Thus, being your own editor can be tough.

In the news world, writing is done lightning fast by reporters who are good at hunting information down but not assembling it into a narrative. The process therefore includes a layer of editing done by someone else who can focus on it. This is why journalism has a bad name with viral articles written by general assignment reporters who have no expertise in the field (an emerging PR, for example) that they're writing about. They're expending minimum effort for the greatest return, and that's their job. Compare those to print articles that have had attention, and you'll see stark differences.

My advice is: I suggest you follow copy-editors to see how they do things; many of them have blogs, some offer courses, but more than anything they give you impression that language changes and you shouldn't be frozen when writing. In fact, what they believe in is that grammar is a living, changing thing. When you see how copy editors transform text, it becomes eye opening.

John McIntyre writes a blog titled "You don't Say" about copy editing for the Baltimore Sun (which he's done for 29 years now). Most of his evening shifts start with him grumbling about snipping text (ex: from 28 column inches to 20), which means he has to reduce some articles by 30%. His reductions are somehow always gains to the reader, but he sure can reduce a reporter to tears.

Some simple examples of his editing: "In a prone position" changed to "prone". Or, "... to anticipate the problem in advance" replaced with "anticipated." ; "End result" replaced with "result." ; "Added bonus" changed to "bonus". "New initiative" reduced to "initiative". And these are just small snippets having to do with filler - larger fact-checking and narrative edits are a much longer story.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#54

"Every time I get a memo from someone written magazine style, I literally tear it up" So they either communicate on paper, which would be stpid, or he misuses "literally", which would be ironic.

Use of the word "literally" as hyperbole is understood clearly by every single reader of this thread, including you. You might as well get over it.

I actually took what he said at face value and I understood that he does tear paper up.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#55
post #17

For the startup world: Approximately 80% of the pitches I get are between garbled and incoherent. Even higher in the unsolicited ones. Consider that your recipient is reading on a small screen and utilize pyramid structure. And don't bury the lede. Many pitches ask for money without saying anything at all about what they are about.

Would you recommend something like "How to pitch a VC" by Dave McClure. Or something else? I feel like there's no magic in a pitch. That you just have to tell the VC what problem you're solving. And just expect your VC to get it. Maybe the same pitch can have 2 totally different reactions in different people, because one of them have felt that pain or is identified with it. Bottom line, my take is: make it simple, be…

Sure. Just tell me what the fucking thing is, even. Half the time people want to meet to coffee to discuss it without telling me. Sorry, but probably not. If there is a link I will at least click it.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#56
post #35

The summary first style of writing is a hack to enable quick trust establishment. It doesn't work for all concepts and it's unlikely to be effective for communicating very complex and innovative subjects. Also, some things just have to be shown visually to be trusted. A paragraph explaining an anti-gravity device isn't going to cut it. You need to show it working in person where there can be no doubt it's doing what…

There is no subject so complex and innovative that you can't start with a summary explaining what the point is and why readers should care.

It has nothing to do with "complex and innovative" it's the difference in perception inputs needed to grok something.

I can tell you very quickly about Virtual Reality and why you should care, but you won't understand it till you put a HMD on.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Snap decision makers" .. in some circumstances, such as during deadline-approaching, clock-ticking, actual "print schedules", are quite appropriate for some forms of industry, methinks. Perhaps there are different models for different schedules?

I was using that as somewhat of a euphimism for the leader that doesn't know anything, but likes being correct and pretending he does. He does this by saying "let's do that", or worse, "I am going to tear up your memo and humiliate you by requiring you to take a class because you're wasting my time", which is pretty deep on the ego scale to say that to someone. It might be better to just reply "I'm having a little ha…

Taken to an extreme: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/tiger-oil-memos.html

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#58
post #41

This also is good advice for anyone applying to YC. I'm not going to read your 10,000 word manifesto -- just tell me what it is you are building! :) We've actually found that the ability to provide clear and concise answers strongly correlates with success, so this is a major factor when evaluating founders. I'm also reminded of my favorite C. A. R. Hoare quote: "There are two ways of constructing a software design:…

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Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#59
post #41

This also is good advice for anyone applying to YC. I'm not going to read your 10,000 word manifesto -- just tell me what it is you are building! :) We've actually found that the ability to provide clear and concise answers strongly correlates with success, so this is a major factor when evaluating founders. I'm also reminded of my favorite C. A. R. Hoare quote: "There are two ways of constructing a software design:…

So pitches should follow coding practices? No pitch is longer than one screen. Line width is 80 characters. Sentences should be about one thing and one thing only. Names should clearly describe what the thing they name do.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#60
post #31

Wow all the comments here seem negative. The guy is just saying that people should be clearer with their writing and getting to the point right away to avoid confusion. If they're writing about a topic that's more complex, sure, the writing will need to be more complex. But there's nothing wrong with communicating simply if the subject allows it.

Whether your topic is simple or complex, you still need to lead with your point. A complex analysis might have many sub-points that you prove-up in subsequent paragraphs, but your ultimate conclusion still needs to come at the beginning, and each supporting paragraph still needs to lead with the sub-point you're proving. Say you're writing a memo to your boss explaining why you need to double the size of your enginee…

Yes, lead with the point. I can't tell you how many emails I get that are written like a movie or TV script. (Better not spoil it for the reader; we'll just barely foreshadow the point and there's more coming up after this commercial break...)

Even worse is wading through one of these tomes, only to read two or three possible courses of action with none recommended above the other(s).

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