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It's not just that people don't know how to write. It's been my experience that many people also don't know how to read properly. If you try to make a nuanced a
by Tainnor 6y ago
It's not just that people don't know how to write. It's been my experience that many people also don't know how to read properly. If you try to make a nuanced argument, many people will read what they want to read and completely misunderstand you. Or sometimes they will complain "why are you writing so much? I don't like to read".
- teddyh 6y agoIt’s not even that. People don’t even try to read. Ask two questions in an e-mail, and get an answer to the first question, only. Every time. You have to adapt. Ask the single most important question as the first sentence. Don’t write a lot of text after the question either – it would only make people feel they can put off reading it, and therefore put off answering the e-mail. Don’t ask an easy question later in the same e-email (people would answer that question only, and ignore the rest of the text). And so on.
- Tainnor 6y agoSure, that might work for simple questions. But sometimes you really need to ask a nuanced question, and then what?
- teddyh 6y agoI’d ask the question first, then explain it. Possibly ask the same question again after the explanation. If the question could/would be misunderstood without the explanation, I’d change the question to instead be confusing without the explanation. But you really have to work hard at being able to explain enough things with a very short text.
- m0zg 6y ago> Ask the single most important question as the first sentence Exactly. And also, NEVER ask the questions you'd like answers for on Friday afternoon. Or any afternoon in general. If it doesn't say what it wants in the first sentence or two, I'm hitting delete, unless the email is from my boss. And I currently do not have a boss.