Have you heard of Laconia?
Laconia was a part of Greece, where the Spartans lived. Those mighty, athletic, ascetic, ancient warriors were my childhood heroes. Among other things, they were famous for being brief. That is why nowadays, when someone or something is succinct, they may call is “laconic”.
The story is that once an angry Macedonian king sent Spartans a message:
“If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out!”
To which they replied:
“If”
As I became a young adult, my heroes were athletes still, but I also added scientists. Richard Feynman, for example, among other things, was famous for explaining complex things in simple language. His books on physics are such a joy and easy to read, that you may put them into the “Entertainment” section of the library, instead of “Science”.
I grew up a lot, and now I value brevity even more. I see athletes everywhere, but something has happened to conciseness. It has become a rare trait. In my line of work, I deal with lots of documentation and often see bloated writing. By bloated I mean lots of meaningless details, pointless sections, empty phrases. These documents are hard to read and understand.
I have a few theories about why people do that:
One is that authors want to impress readers. That is especially true in the business environment, where vendors want to impress customers, employees want to impress managers, and managers want to impress their managers.
That is selfish at least, as the readers have to pay for the author’s gratification with their time and attention.
Hey, hey, but what about “take someone on the journey?” – I hear. Yes, you’re right… but are you sure that you are not just hiding the fact … that you are afraid?
Afraid that if you don’t say a lot, then they will think that you don’t know much?
I am afraid too, and to help me with that fear, I recall Feynman’s insight: “Complexity and jargon often mask a lack of understanding.” Or Einstein: “Anyone can make a subject complicated but only someone who understands can make it simple”. Another great piece of advice is from Scott Adams: The Day You Became A Better Writer
Or perhaps it is a remnant of school/university education? Essays and theses had to be a certain length to prove the work…
Or perhaps it was a publisher pressure? You cannot charge big dollars for a short book, as they believe that customers believe (and academics believe) that more volume is more value…
No, I don’t believe in wordiness.
I believe people will respect me more if I care about them – by being brief and to the point.
If.