One of my more successful routines while teaching English to German business personnel was to take a sentence, any sentence, supplied by the client and reduce it, one superfluous word after another, until it was impossible to eliminate any further words without changing the meaning. Especially useful for speechwriting, I found.
Agree with you on many of the books you list. I’m trying to read The Karamazov Brothers , not really enjoying it or for that matter , understand it. I used to have a 30 page rule ... if I couldn’t get into a book after 30 pages, I’d discard it. But I’m trying to persevere in this case , dunno why really. Perhaps there will be an epiphany towards the end. Or maybe I just don’t have the concentration span anymore (which is true)
When promoting the readable, ignore the pseudo-intellectual.
On occasional advancement of discourse, saturated with circumspection and deeply proficient, but manifestly authored, draw upon inner-resources and reflect that an impression riven from the immediate thing possessed in fact, as opposed to a thing about which one is still speculating, may be worth a brace in the chaparral and the intellectual obscurant may safely be rendered secondary in one’s estimation.
Somewhat related, whenever I've tried asking ChatGPT for help with my writing it ends up picking sentence structures and words that "aren't me" and my writing communicates less clearly
Sometimes a ChatGPTification leave my writing sounding like the character Moss from the IT crowd, especially if talking about technology or coding.
In the end, found the AI more of a hindrance than a help, but I do worry about the thousands of emails, comments, instant messages and even books which will have been written yet contain such little information.
The tragedy of modern times; short slogans, memes and tweets get Democrats, Socialists, Marxists, Labour and communists elected, which is why China is pushing TikTok. Long essays butter no parsnips! Competition for you Dominic, Jordan is concise here > https://www.dossier.today/p/what-we-learned-at-davos-2024-global
There’s a scene in the film, The Hours, where Virginia Woolf’s character realises that publishers would select writers if they used words the publisher didn’t know.
There’s a saying in marketing: simplify for free, complicate for profit. I wonder did all those on the free path just give up because it wasn’t making them any money.
One of my more successful routines while teaching English to German business personnel was to take a sentence, any sentence, supplied by the client and reduce it, one superfluous word after another, until it was impossible to eliminate any further words without changing the meaning. Especially useful for speechwriting, I found.
What a good exercise!
Agree with you on many of the books you list. I’m trying to read The Karamazov Brothers , not really enjoying it or for that matter , understand it. I used to have a 30 page rule ... if I couldn’t get into a book after 30 pages, I’d discard it. But I’m trying to persevere in this case , dunno why really. Perhaps there will be an epiphany towards the end. Or maybe I just don’t have the concentration span anymore (which is true)
So many books .... only one life to live. Weed out the crap ones
When promoting the readable, ignore the pseudo-intellectual.
On occasional advancement of discourse, saturated with circumspection and deeply proficient, but manifestly authored, draw upon inner-resources and reflect that an impression riven from the immediate thing possessed in fact, as opposed to a thing about which one is still speculating, may be worth a brace in the chaparral and the intellectual obscurant may safely be rendered secondary in one’s estimation.
hahahahahahaha
So very true. “I’m sorry my report is a bit late, boss. I had to write it shorter”..
🤣
Somewhat related, whenever I've tried asking ChatGPT for help with my writing it ends up picking sentence structures and words that "aren't me" and my writing communicates less clearly
Sometimes a ChatGPTification leave my writing sounding like the character Moss from the IT crowd, especially if talking about technology or coding.
In the end, found the AI more of a hindrance than a help, but I do worry about the thousands of emails, comments, instant messages and even books which will have been written yet contain such little information.
Yes, the re-writes can take as long as if you had just written it yourself in the first place
Something to ponder,
I’ve not a clue who you are, what your history is, truly I don’t know why I should read your writing. Yet I do.
It’s the clarity, inherent truth, and perhaps your personality that I find value.
Congrats on finding a new customer by having solid values and living them.
Many thanks. You are very kind.
Absolutely agree with this. Fifty percent of professional joke writing is spent removing fifty percent of the words.
The tragedy of modern times; short slogans, memes and tweets get Democrats, Socialists, Marxists, Labour and communists elected, which is why China is pushing TikTok. Long essays butter no parsnips! Competition for you Dominic, Jordan is concise here > https://www.dossier.today/p/what-we-learned-at-davos-2024-global
thank you - i shall read
There’s a scene in the film, The Hours, where Virginia Woolf’s character realises that publishers would select writers if they used words the publisher didn’t know.
I wonder if there’s a modern equivalent...
How funny! I bet there is …
It’s absolutely a believatrusim.
You've got yourself selected
I find Jordan Peterson’s books hard to read.
Compare that to how he speaks in interview (ignoring that he’s often baited) and it’s engaging and compelling.
Not sure why he doesn’t write the same way as he speaks.
Yes, I was the same. I only got about a chapter or two into 12 Rules before I gave up
Sad. Rule three was ‘Never give up. ‘
hahahhaha
There’s a saying in marketing: simplify for free, complicate for profit. I wonder did all those on the free path just give up because it wasn’t making them any money.
What an interesting thought. I love that saying