While I agree that there’s value to being able to state the summary of the viewpoint, I can’t help but feel that brevity is the wrong approach to take to this subject in particular. If the point is that effective people reason by examples and seeing patterns rather than by manipulating logical objects and functions, then removing the examples and patterns to just leave logical objects and functions is betraying the point!
Somewhat more generally, yes, there is value in telling people things, but they need to be explained if you want to communicate with people that don’t already understand them.
I definitely agree that you shouldn’t be so brief as to not get your point across, I think the level of brevity depends on what your goal is. In this case, he’s asking for help. It isn’t until 1,500 words in that the two most important questions: “What does he want?” and “Why should I help him?” are answered.
(Besides, he specifically wanted help in communicating things succinctly.)
The post reminded me of The creative mind by Margaret Bowden; her examples, in particular Kekule seeing the benzene ring, seem relevant here. (Although the book definitely could be shorter:)
While I agree that there’s value to being able to state the summary of the viewpoint, I can’t help but feel that brevity is the wrong approach to take to this subject in particular. If the point is that effective people reason by examples and seeing patterns rather than by manipulating logical objects and functions, then removing the examples and patterns to just leave logical objects and functions is betraying the point!
Somewhat more generally, yes, there is value in telling people things, but they need to be explained if you want to communicate with people that don’t already understand them.
I definitely agree that you shouldn’t be so brief as to not get your point across, I think the level of brevity depends on what your goal is. In this case, he’s asking for help. It isn’t until 1,500 words in that the two most important questions: “What does he want?” and “Why should I help him?” are answered.
(Besides, he specifically wanted help in communicating things succinctly.)
The post reminded me of The creative mind by Margaret Bowden; her examples, in particular Kekule seeing the benzene ring, seem relevant here. (Although the book definitely could be shorter:)