Communicating

“Writing is the process by which you realize that you do not understand what you are talking about. Of course, you can learn a lot about something without writing about it. However, writing about something complicated and hard to pin down acts as a test to see how well you understand it. When we approach our work as a stranger, we often discover... See more

“The truth shrinks as the crowd grows.

In a large meeting at work, people hold back their honest opinions. The resulting conversation offends the fewest people but is often not the truth.​

Smaller groups are more likely to find truth than larger ones.”

When we know a lot about a topic, it can be difficult to write about it in a way that makes sense to the layperson. To improve writing, Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker suggests several strategies:

1. Use concrete nouns and refer to tangible things instead of abstractions.


2. Assume that readers know less about the topic than you do, but are still

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“The simplest way to clarify your thinking is to write a full page about whatever you are dealing with and then delete everything except the 1-2 sentences that explain it best.”

When you truly understand something, you can express it at any level of detail while maintaining coherence.

The master can provide the one-sentence version, the paragraph version, and the chapter version, all of which tell the same story at different resolutions. The novice can only repeat what they’ve memorized at one resolution.

“My friend, who sometimes shares his writing with me, once said my feedback always falls into three categories:

1. Make it shorter.

2. Make it more appealing.

3. How could it apply to more people?”