Get To The Point
Communicating minimally.
Communicate Minimally
One good idea for work, life, and writing is to communicate minimally.
Communicating minimally makes it easier for the listener to follow your direction.
Writing minimally makes it easier for the reader to act on your advice.
This is what minimalist writing looks like. Last year I wrote a quick, 600 word essay about wealth.1
Initially, I was embarrassed because it read more like a Tweet thread than a blog post. But the advice was actionable.
To this day it’s still in my top 5 most read posts.
This is not what minimalist writing looks like. I recently spent weeks writing a 4,000 word blog about how LLMs work.2
Upon hitting ‘publish’ it was one of my least read newsletters in a long time.
Since then, I deleted over 2,000 words, and now it’s actually picking up traction.
The lesson (to me) is that people (including me) don’t want to read a dissertation.
They want short, actionable advice. So they can get on with their day.
When I played college football, my defensive line coach was adamant about brevity during in-game communication.
During a night home game vs. Harvard my sophomore year, Daryle, my Nose Tackle and I were discussing the backfield before a crucial play on 3rd down.
In the middle of our discussion, the center snapped the football. We both got our noses smashed by a wave of Crimson offensive linemen!
The next morning while breaking down game film, our D-Line coach circled his laser pointer around Daryle and I during our heated discussion.
He rightfully said, “When you communicate, you don’t need to give a dissertation! Get to the f***ing point!”
He was right. Get to the point.
Thanks for reading.
— Grant Varner
