Directing effort. Theirs and yours.
“The less energy they expend on your prose, the more they’ll have left for your ideas.” - Paul Graham
Making something difficult to understand says more about the writer’s limitations than the reader’s.
You know this already.
So where are you putting your time and effort as a communicator?
Because there are two parts to this dance.
- How you communicate.
- What you communicate.
Don’t ruin your what by your how.
Effortless = worthless: Why you should show your labour
If it seems effortless, it can seem worthless.
When something comes too easily, we don’t seem to value it.
I once heard a comedian suggest adding an ‘average Joe’ to every race at the Olympics just so we can appreciate just how exceptional these athletes are.
For you, effortless might be an idea you have that you immediately second guess because it seems too obvious, or a service you provide that customers undervalue.
Showing your work, the hours you’ve...
Postcard
When real estate mogul Barbara Cororan sends a thank you note to clients, she doesn’t use a letter.
She uses a postcard.
A postcard saves them the trouble of having to open an envelope.
The thanks is right there.
How can you cut to the good news?
Doing hard things
I often talk about the need to minimise effort if we want behaviour to happen. The easier something is to do, the smaller the payoff for bothering needs to be.
But.
Sometimes we need to do hard things. We want to do hard things.
There’s the thrill of riding a roller coaster, the relief of passing exams and the satisfaction of climbing a mountain. The adrenaline of presenting your ideas to a crowded room.
In these cases, making the hard thing easy would negate its worth.
No...
