Hi.
Say it like it is, don’t beat around the bush.
A longer read can be a deterrent within our clickbait culture. Haven’t you noticed the trend in adding [how many minutes this takes to read] under article titles or bylines of stories and journalism; as if everyone’s time is so fucking precious…give me a break. I’ve always seen it as a challenge. You don’t know me or how quickly I read.
Aside from this, I’ve personally lost a lot of faith in journalism. It often comes across as deliberately destructive or sensational.
Just as more money doesn’t determine class: better words don’t necessarily make a better point.
Attention is not the same as focus. #BrockaQuote
Often when a point is concise, it’s considered well said. Longer form writing often presumes well thought out prose, but as an avid reader, pompous-bombastic-fluffy writing is obnoxious and often distracting from the theme or point. There are too many writers who think they should write differently from how they speak. It reads just as awkwardly as it probably pains the writer to compose it. I’ve recently been in the habit of ebook listening via Overdrive library app, so I hear so much more now.
Hearing how something comes across is much different than reading it. The opposite is equally prescient. ALWAYS read the transcript of ANY political speech. It is often two different experiences, two different themes.
Much more can be said with fewer words, i.e. I love you.
Stop.
Help.
Please.
Yes.
Do more words connote more consideration?
Why do we like quotes, and quoting quotes so much? Because the points they make are often easily applied and memorable. Very few people quote entire passages from memory.
Entire companies are made and branded by their byline or catch phrase. Nike, Just Do It.
Elaborate details are necessary for character development, plot building, scientific debates, thesis papers…Yet still at the end of these examples, a person walks away with a singular theme.
A TED talk or university commencement speech is propelled by one title-theme-line, or turn of phrase.
When we are young, we are under the impression to know a lot of facts or things means one is smart. But as we get older, we come to see the knowing is useless when not applied. The truest definition of a smart person is the one who retains the information, then easily teaches it to another.
Our most favorite influential teachers in school weren’t particularly the smartest, they were the ones who taught well: explained and showed.
A singular fact can effect one’s argument, while a lengthy argument may never change one’s mind. #BrockaQuote If you are on twitter debating politics, you are very familiar with this.
Every word has a precise meaning and it’s in everyone’s best interest to use the specific one.
Call it another example of my minimalism: fewer words. Precision.
I find this Instagram account a visual representation of what I’ve just discussed. A few lines, a lot of implication.
minimalism sketch
A coincidentally timed article on company mottoes. Keep it short. The Power of Company Mottoes.
Ideally, a company motto, is short, resonant, memorizable. This makes it resistant to confusion and agitation. Whether you’re the receptionist, the independent-minded engineer, or the top arse, you must always be able to recite it. Even at 3 am. Even if you’re tired, drunk, and distraught. Even if your spouse just threw you out to the street in the rain in your underwear.
For the record, I’m back. xx