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What reading style do you consider more tedious to read, A) short, concise, and precise, but using non-layperson vocabulary, B) using layperson vocabulary, but it's longer, drawn out, and not precise? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago by CraigOhMyEggo@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've seen a lot of people on here be teased for difficulty expressing themselves. Either people complain "you're using big person words to describe mundane things" when they're aiming for precision or "woah, we don't need that damn wall of text" when they're aiming for clarity. It's like people just want to complain.

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[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

There are many quotes that describe this phenomenon:

"Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short." -- Henry David Thoreau, 1857 [1]

I picked that version because it was short. In other words, it takes time to remove superfluous text, something that takes practice. Previously I found that Xitter character limit helped hone the skill.

I have written a weekly podcast article about the hobby of amateur radio for 13 years and I've learnt that the better you understand a topic, the more concise you can formulate your thoughts.

Einstein put it like this: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." [2]

[1] Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
[2] Source: https://www.socratic-method.com/quote-meanings/albert-einstein-if-you-cant-explain-it-simply-you-dont-understand-it-well-enough

[–] Jilanico@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

You could have just said, "Why not both?" 😜