I miss the time when writers didn't follow these rules, it was so much more fun to read, and ideas expressed were more complex and interesting too.
Good news, your time is still now.
How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
51–60 of 159 posts
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the contrary, a person skilled at Twitter could have compressed the essence of what you wrote into 280 characters. I’ve found the best books and essays are similarly compressible, with the rest of the information being about bolstering it as being worthy of the precious few slots in your L1 cache.
The essence, perhaps... with none of the nuance or shading. If one thinks that is unnecessary, dispensable fluff, Twitter is no doubt sufficient for most writing. And a rhyming dictionary contains all poetry in many fewer pages.
> The essence, perhaps... with none of the nuance or shading
Precisely why the worlds problems are all solvable on Twitter.
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#53I miss the time when writers didn't follow these rules, it was so much more fun to read, and ideas expressed were more complex and interesting too.
These are pretty simple rules of information delivery (at least up to page 43 of this 125 page power point). They've been around for a while but they're most useful for mid-level corporate communication and things resembling that.
Fiction writers and writers trying to convey more sophisticated ideas haven't used them (or haven't only them) in the past and generally don't at present.
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#54Forgive me for bringing up my own material here, but I wrote a piece that is highly relevant in this context only two days ago: Writing for Engineers - https://www.heinrichhartmann.com/posts/writing/ This text is particularly geared towards Software Engineers and focuses more on the psychology of getting started with writing. Lot's of overlap with the content in this post (which has much more depth on the "how to wri…
I hereby forgive you.
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#55Something that's coming to mind while reading this is how much company communication these days happens almost exclusively on Slack, and how antithetical that format can be to writing and thinking clearly.
I've suggested creating a company forum at a few different places, but it's always received like a strange idea that nobody will actually engage with or give any thought to. Email, Slack, etc, none of them create a good long term record that outsiders and newcomers can consume. Some companies have a wiki, but I've never seen them used. Forums are good for long form communication, people can put in more effort knowing…
Actually, Automattic, the distributed company behind WordPress uses blogs (called p2s after the WP theme) for this. Each team has their own 'blog' and you can link them, comment, etc. Then there are company wide blogs with different topics, watercooler blogs, etc.
Really useful to revisit past decisions and as a company wide knowledgebase. They even created a product out of it: https://wordpress.com/p2/
Disclaimer: I work there, but on a different product.
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#56Forgive me for bringing up my own material here, but I wrote a piece that is highly relevant in this context only two days ago: Writing for Engineers - https://www.heinrichhartmann.com/posts/writing/ This text is particularly geared towards Software Engineers and focuses more on the psychology of getting started with writing. Lot's of overlap with the content in this post (which has much more depth on the "how to wri…
Thank you for posting and for having a site that is easy to save for later.
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#57[deleted]
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the contrary, a person skilled at Twitter could have compressed the essence of what you wrote into 280 characters. I’ve found the best books and essays are similarly compressible, with the rest of the information being about bolstering it as being worthy of the precious few slots in your L1 cache.
The essence, perhaps... with none of the nuance or shading. If one thinks that is unnecessary, dispensable fluff, Twitter is no doubt sufficient for most writing. And a rhyming dictionary contains all poetry in many fewer pages.
Nuance and shading is not entirely unselfish. Too much nuance indicates a lack of trust in your reader.
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#59Something that's coming to mind while reading this is how much company communication these days happens almost exclusively on Slack, and how antithetical that format can be to writing and thinking clearly.
We dont use slack like that really, but google doc comments are similarly limiting. Atleast most thoughts happen in a google doc
Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
The essence, perhaps... with none of the nuance or shading. If one thinks that is unnecessary, dispensable fluff, Twitter is no doubt sufficient for most writing. And a rhyming dictionary contains all poetry in many fewer pages.
Nuance and shading is not entirely unselfish. Too much nuance indicates a lack of trust in your reader.
Given the nature and quality of replies I’ve seen even on HN — where there are no such character limits and the level of education its members have is higher on average — it seems to me that trust has yet to be earned.