“Write as short as you can / In order / Of what matters.” Thus American poet, John Berryman.
Certainly I endeavour to follow his advice in writing blogposts. I have just one thought – and come to it as briefly as possible.
Sometimes this seems to be difficult to achieve, as I wander round the houses.
But I never post a blog the day I write it. I always give myself the chance to make it pithier.
By and large I don’t like many blogs for this very reason. They go on (and sometimes on and on) beyond what’s necessary.
Often attributed to Mark Twain and to Oscar Wilde, it seems that it was the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, much earlier (in 1656), who originally wrote: "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.” (I have only made this letter too long because I have not had time to make it shorter.)
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