> "Most readers' energy tends to flag part way through an article or essay." > "When you write in a fancy way to impress people, you're making them do extra wo

> "Most readers' energy tends to flag part way through an article or essay." > "When you write in a fancy way to impress people, you're making them do extra work just so you can seem cool." > "So you can't assume that writing about a difficult topic means you can safely use difficult words." I can't understand why someone writing about writing simply is using a word like "flag" that is completely jarring and never used colloquially. While you can sort of surmise what it means from the context, I still had to look up the definition to confirm. And if it might be meant as a way to naturally teach someone the word, why is that lesson buried in an essay about writing simply? I guess I'll chalk it up to him not realizing how obtuse that word is, couldn't think of anything simpler like "wane", "fall", or "recede", and didn't want to change up the structure of that sentence. I just can't imagine how that irony got past any editor.