Comments on: Small Words

By: Peter Aranyi

Peter Aranyi — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:11:10 +0000

I remember reading a seminar promotional description that said the speaker was an expert in “rapid wealth acquisition”…

Translation: “get rich quick”.

At least he was putting it out there! – Peter

By: Chris McDowall

Chris McDowall — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:14:17 +0000

Yes!

By: Courtney Johnston

Courtney Johnston — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:46:54 +0000

One of best writing things I’ve read in the last 6 months:

“They have, therefore, been most rigorous in putting in execution the only Remedy that can be found for this extravagance, and that has been a constant Resolution to reject all the amplifications, digressions, and swellings of style, to return back to the primitive purity, and shortness, when men delivered so many things almost in an equal number of words. They have exacted from all their members, a close, naked, natural way of speaking–positive expressions, clear senses, a native easiness–bringing all things as near the Mathematical plainness as they can.”

‘They’ is the Royal Society, and this is Thomas Sprat, writing the first history of the Society, in 1667.

By: Nat Torkington

Nat Torkington — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:38:35 +0000

Yes. Recommended reading: George Orwell's brilliant essay "Politics and the English Language". Clarity of thought and clarity of expression are entwined and Orwell's lessons apply just as well to business and technology as to politics.