That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
— Charles Caleb Colton
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Value in anything made for other people is a ratio, not a total. It is what you give divided by what you cost them, and the cost is usually their time, which nobody gets back. Length flatters the maker and taxes everyone else, so the effort of cutting is a form of respect paid to people you will never meet.
All of that applies well past writing. Before your next message, meeting or explanation, ask what could come out without losing the substance, and take it out.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Where could you say what you mean in half the time?
MORE IN TIME, MORTALITY & LEGACY
- Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.
- In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.
- Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.