3 ms·
This is a no-brainer. At first, I thought it's not worthy of an essay because it's so obvious. But then I read the comments.
by thedevil 11y ago
This is a no-brainer.
At first, I thought it's not worthy of an essay because it's so obvious.
But then I read the comments.
- RankingMember 11y agoAgreed. I feel like I'm tripping over the ego of some writers trying to read their work; I can practically see them with the thesaurus out trying to make things sound grander and more complicated than they are.
- thedevil 11y agoTo clarify: I don't think Paul Graham meant ramble, use "uhs" and "ums" and expletives as some commenters have said. I think the point was to use common and simple wording so that people can understand without doing a lot of work. People have a lot more practice understanding common and simple words. So it's much easier for them to read, no matter how smart they are. Using uncommon or complicated words makes you feel smart, and might make some people think you're smart, but it makes your writing miserable work to read. I think this was pretty clear in PG's essay, but the headline probably threw people off. Maybe he should have said it differently, such as "Make your writing as simple as your speech."