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 ho... See more

“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.”

“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 inte

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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.

A lot of clients like to buy process. It’s like they think they are not getting their money’s worth because I solved it too fast.

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How can it be that you talk to someone and it’s done in a second? But it IS done in a second — it’s done in a second and 34 years. It’s done in a second and every experience, and every movie, and everything in my

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“The best way to think is to write.”