Fuck Nuance Within Short Form Content
Ever seen somebody make an absolutist claim on Twitter and people responding to it with: "This does not apply to X though!!"? No shit, Sherlock. Nuance is left out on purpose. Not because of oversight. But either to provoke or because of lazyness and a simple 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 Rule Applies to Writing Too
In 1906 economist Pareto found out that 80% of Italy's land was owned by only 20% of the population. A few decades later Joseph Juran saw that this 80/20 rule also applied to quality-control: only a handful of flaws caused the majority of defects.
Since then, it was discovered that this phenomenon is much more universal than Pareto originally imagined. This principle can be applied to many other areas: to donations, to sales and even to computing . In 1997, Richard Koch defined it like this: "The 80/20 principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs or effort usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards."
And I am here to tell you this also applies to writing: 20% of written words can deliver 80% of the point.
On the flipside, this means that you would have to write five times as much to deliver the last 20 percent. That is four times as more work.
I Do Not Care About Nuance in My Writing
So when I write my short form content - either on my blog or on social media, do not come and judge me when there is too little nuance. I know all about it. In fact it is intentional. I just want to deliver a catchy post which applies to 80% of all cases.
So here's as my universal disclaimer: Of course there is nuance to everything I say. Having lived in three countries, among distinct cultures and perspectives, I know about different shadings. In fact the variety of cultures is one of the things that fascinate me the most. But I do not want to encompass every possible viewpoint into my writing. I am currently into the short form shit, here to deliver a punch line. To stir some thought and maybe some discussion. I will leave the nuance to much smarter people than me: the debators, the book writers, the journalists.
Hold Me Accountable When I Hit Below 80%
On a closing note, do complain though if I hit below the 80% mark. Then I failed and am all ears to hear your valuable criticism.