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michaelpdonley's review against another edition
5.0
A massively helpful resource for concise communication.
hellojoie's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
2.0
Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick? -Kevin Malone and also, this book
I work in a field notorious for its primary output being lengthy, rarely read and jargon laden reports, and am a once-unrepentant writer of long emails (now a repentant-in-some-contexts-but-not-others). This book was recommended by a businessperson I admire and respect, and I wondered if it would help me in some work contexts. I certainly found value in some pieces. The strategies recommended were practical and well-explained, and there were some nuggets of wisdom I appreciated.
If you think about serving your audience first—colleagues, students, parishioners, friends—and not your own ego, you will naturally cut down on waste. This might seem simple, but it’s where most people go off the rails. We tend to think too much about what we want to say versus what others need to hear.
Overall it's a handy resource for effective, sensible communication in business environments and probably modern media. However, I felt the approach was presented more as a useful tool in basically all forms of interpersonal communication in a way that uh... disgusted me. For example, this valuable case study from a realtor:
I don’t waste time [in an email] by saying: ‘Hi, hope you’re having a good day.’
I am sure some people appreciate that approach. It is not for me. Or this headline suggestion:
If you start with: “Low-waste economy hits its groove,” you’ve lost me. But “Start-ups mining cash from trash”—now you’ve got me.
Alert: You do not have me. Or this aside:
[Middle school teacher] Smith points out one area where his 13- and 14-year-olds are ahead of older folks. Middle schoolers love Smart Brevity, but not because of the neurology or psychology behind it. As their teacher puts it: “They just want to write as little as possible.”
I get what you're trying to do here, but telling me this is the preferred communication of 13-year-olds is not the way to sell me on it. (Also: I almost, almost DNF'd the book altogether upon arriving at a chapter called "Emojis." I love emojis! But please do not propose them as a way to make serious writing better.)
More generally I felt the first half of this book in particular promoted a style of writing that has become ubiquitous across the Internet. (More problematically, it also is explicitly promoting their own AI-based tool for doing it.) It's not that I don't see value in this style, it's just that I'm sick of seeing it. For 10+ years I've longed for personal blogs... man do I miss reading long-form writing from my friends (and making new friends from the networks that were built on it). I also fear that this style of writing promotes a hunger for nuancelessness that I find upsetting. That said, the book rightly points out that by our nature, we skim and skip - in many cases, a smart abbreviated format imparts more information than a more detailed one, simply because it is read at all. I also felt the chapters on some types of communication such as meetings, presentations, and newsletters were valuable. Finally, I appreciated that the book practice what it preaches - structured in its own format, a quick and simple read.
Ultimately, I did take away some valuable ideas. But I'm going to balance it out by going and writing a long, non-bulleted email to a friend.