3 ms·
I agree that Franklin's advice might lead to explicit dominance behavior being replaced by the subtler status-seeking antics of convoluted text. That would stil
by michaelkeenan 18y ago
I agree that Franklin's advice might lead to explicit dominance behavior being replaced by the subtler status-seeking antics of convoluted text. That would still be an improvement in my opinion.
Fortunately, the internet has an existing idiom for "simplify and shorten your message", which is of course: "tl;dr".
Franklin's prose could get very convoluted! I don't know whether he was showing off, or whether it was just the style of the time that he didn't think to change. He was fond of listing things in dense paragraphs so it's unfortunate that bulletpoints weren't invented until 1958 (seriously). Modern pundits are aware that simplicity can lead to more effective messages; we have widely-publicized advice like "Keep It Simple, Stupid". Maybe that's a modern insight or fashion.
- shiranaihito 18y agoTrue, convoluted text is much better than the outright hostility present on Reddit. I thought people used "tl;dr" mostly because dismissing things is so much fun, not because they'd be willing to read a shortened version.
- michaelkeenan 18y ago> I thought people used "tl;dr" mostly because dismissing things is so much fun, not because they'd be willing to read a shortened version. You might well be right! But I like to give the benefit of the doubt.