5 ms·
Apart from this being very elementary instructions, I think the bigger story is that the CIA is abusing its power to classify information so extensively that si
by c3534l 9y ago
Apart from this being very elementary instructions, I think the bigger story is that the CIA is abusing its power to classify information so extensively that simple writing advice was classified for 55 years.
- hyperion2010 9y agoWhile I agree with the idea that the CIA abuses power, techniques that enable effective communication are a HUGE advantage. Knowing how to write in a way that other people can actually understand (and take action on) is absolutely advantageous (as is any other technology that reduces miscommunication). Of course at this point in time you can take a course like Little Red Schoolhouse and come away with many, many practical actions you can take to improve the clarity of your written communication, so probably in effect is has already been declassified.
- xor1 9y agoI can't wait to see the CIA guide to shitposting once it's declassified.
- wtvanhest 9y agoIt just says: "Look at the top post, disagree with one point, bring up a distracting point"
- rfrank 9y ago> MEMETICS—A GROWTH INDUSTRY IN US MILITARY OPERATIONS - United States Marine Corps, School of Advanced Warfighting http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507172.pdf http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507172.pdf
- 3131s 9y agoI submitted that a few months ago! In general people don't realize the extent that information warfare is taken seriously in some circles.
- closeparen 9y agoI know Little Red Schoolhouse as the informal name for a particular writing class at the University of Chicago. Is it more general than that?
- hyperion2010 9y agoThere are similar courses at other universities, but I don't know them by name, the general idea being that the courses are based on the data and theories that have come out of linguistics over the past 60 years.
- IIAOPSW 9y agoStyleometry is a thing. You can somewhat identify an author by analysis of word choice, grammar (or lack thereof) and other features. With computers this can be done surprisingly accurately. So yes there is a very good reason to keep the CIA writing advice classified. Even though it seems banal.
- noja 9y agoAre there ways to de-Styleometrize writing?
- zdkl 9y agoFollow a guidebook/protocol religiously
- 3131s 9y agoThere is adversarial stylometry software like JStylo-Anonymouth.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoI destylometrize online sometimes: Use USA spelling, verbize nouns, use words like faucet and miss out Oxford commas.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y agoTranslate to a non-Latinate language and back.
- swixmix 9y agoThis doesn't surprise me at all. Consider what else you can learn about the CIA from the discussion. They could have released a redacted document but it would only have any information that was already publicly available. There's no value in that.
- JumpCrisscross 9y agoIt's easier to classify than de-classify. It's also easier to get dinged for under-classifying than for over-classifying.
- Iv 9y agoHaha, I think you are missing the much more obvious explanation. In any organization dealing with classified information, there is a very well known management trick: if you want your employees to read a document, make it classified and give them clearance to read it. People will be much more interested in it. That case sounds like a textbook example of a document where you want to use that trick.
- vinchuco 9y ago>obvious >trick
- csydas 9y agoIt's not as contradictory as it sounds. Many such practices are fairly well know to general audiences from causal reading of articles just like this, but the practices often aren't identified as such by those who are subjected to it, or if it is identified, the practice works regardless. Take for example here on HN the large number of people who dismiss many of the practices of social media likes but get upset when their post is downvoted. Such practices have a major effect on people regardless of how aware they are of what's actually going on.
- anguswithgusto 9y ago"In order to popularize potatoes in France, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier placed armed guards around his potato fields, instructing the guards to accept all bribes and allow people to "steal" the crop." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine-Augustin_Parmentier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine-Augustin_Parmentier
- Iv 9y agoAdvertisement is an obvious trick that works.