“Tell me again why I should write shorter…”

I was told that brevity is an indication of well-thought-out arguments.  And that people who write long are simply writing to impress or to hide flawed logic.

I beg to differ.

There are some problems that can only be answered by a thorough – and long – document (presentation, reading, or whatever else).

We seek recourse to the excuse “we don’t have time to read therefore summarize it”.

Well, legal documents are yet to become shorter as far as I can tell.

And any astute individual who’s given a contract to sign would take time to read it – everything and anything in it, including the fine-print, the inclusions, the exclusions.

(If I asked my lawyer to just “summarize it for me”, he’d fire me as a client.)

The same is true in business communications – if it is important enough, you will make and find time to read long emails and long documents and long white papers.

If you don’t make and find time, then it’s not important enough.

It’s that simple.