I have to tip my hat to a man who counsels simplicity in writing and in the same piece uses the term “antimetabole.”

A humorous but relevant piece, If Only Simple Were Simple by Freddie De Boer.  I link it primarily because of the pleasurably dry humor of the first paragraph but also due to the example provided in the following paragraphs regarding what happens when applying logic to an argument.  

As far as writing advice goes, I think Derek Thompson’s is fine, actually, and mostly I agree with it. (And I have to tip my hat to a man who counsels simplicity in writing and in the same piece uses the term “antimetabole.”) But I must point out a pretty important contradiction.

Rule one: 

 

Simple is smart. High school taught me big words. College rewarded me for using big words. Then I graduated and realized that intelligent readers outside the classroom don’t want big words. They want complex ideas made simple. 

 

Rule two: 

 

Be interesting. Okay, but what does interesting mean? My best stab at a definition is: interestingness = novelty + importance. Many stories are novel, but not important. Sometimes great efforts at writing and reporting don’t attract an audience because the story fails to answer the silent question inside every reader’s head: “Why should I care?” Other stories are important but not novel. If you have nothing new to add to a topic in reporting or sources or interpretation or framing, move on. It is both grandiose and obvious to say that there has never been a time in human history with more competition among writers for scarce reader attention.

You might already guess the contradiction here: writing simply is the single most frequently shared piece of writing advice there is, at least in English, certainly in America. American writing is a cult of minimalism. And so Thompson is telling people to distinguish themselves only after he advises them to write like everybody else. He references Strunk & White, which (I’m very sorry to say) was once the bible of American nonfiction prose. But if the bible is telling everyone to write simply, and you are telling people to write simply, but also that they must distinguish themselves… you see the dilemma.