I agree that examples and asides are useful. What I had in mind is certain chapters in physics or math books that are fully boil down to one equation, but someh

I agree that examples and asides are useful. What I had in mind is certain chapters in physics or math books that are fully boil down to one equation, but somehow end up stretching the narrative out to fill dozens of pages. Just the other day I was looking for the statement of Stokes theorem in a mainstream calculus textbook, and fell upon two special formulations, one 'outline' of a derivation, before finally finding the theorem. Even though I knew exactly what I was looking for it took me minutes. What would a student remember from this chapter? A much better structure would be to state the Stokes' theorem upfront and then give a few examples, and maybe show the derivation, then end the chapter. Short and sweet; something the reader will remember.