Eschew obfuscation

Short post, important message: be clear.

We’ve talked about this idea already, but it needs stressed because it is so often completely ignored. People will say “oh, of course I should write clearly,” but then when it gets down to a choice between “transmit” and “send”, they’ll pick “transmit” because it makes them sound smarter.

You probably aren’t being paid to sound smart. You are being paid to be smart and to get a job done. Part of your job is to help others on your team or in your community get their job done using what you’ve created. They need to quickly understand the value of what you’ve done and how they can incorporate it into their product, project, or deadline. Be clear.

Remember that your purpose is to communicate. You want to inform, persuade, or educate about a topic. If someone reads your writing and their only comment is “Wow, you are smart. I had to look up half the words you used,” throw it away and start over.

The phrase “eschew obfuscation” is fun to use, because it’s big and fancy and one rarely hears or sees the words. Not everyone uses them. This means not everyone understands them. Avoid making things unnecessarily complex. Don’t “eschew obfuscation”; do “avoid making things complex.”