Keeping it Stupid Simple

You will not learn this in school


You will not learn this in school

Of all the paradoxes I have learned in school — this insight may be my favorite:

The more you learn, the harder it is to communicate.

So what do I mean by that? The more grandiose, inquisitive language you utilize the more quizzical it becomes to comprehend (case and point). What ends up happening is that no-one understands what you are talking about. More importantly — your ideas fail to get communicated.

I would argue that it is much harder to write one, consolidated perfect page of analysis versus six drawn out pages of boringness. Most teachers employ the latter, but the value of simplicity and conciseness should not be undertaken.

In business, especially, management communication is vital to the delivery of messages.

In the real world of business, two principles surpass academic writing, both of which inherent to human thought: people don’t care && people do not have time.

It is not that people do not want to hear what you say (they may not) but it is rather that people care infinitely more about the core and could honestly care less about the fluff. So trim the fat, and make it really easy for people to see the prime cut. Unless, of course, there is no prime meat hiding. In that case, your writing should be scrapped anyway.

The next point — people do not have time and energy to try to understand the message you may be getting at. A lot of the time, people will just stop trying and give up.

So keep it stupid simple. Keep your message as straightforward as possible. It is really hard to convince people, nearly impossible over an email. So keep it short, use carriage returns, and stop wasting your time with novel messages.

Thank you s much for the read : )

ping me @itsjordangonen

or email jordangonen@wustl.edu