I feel, there are different ways to convey something to someone. One is lengthy and another one is, you know, of course, shortcut. And, who doesn’t love shortcuts? So, I prefer to keep my articles short and crispy. Of course, it depends on the choices. Some people love to read big articles. Sadly, I am also the same. Sad because it takes much of my time. But I give it a read if it’s worthy of it. And other people who love shortcuts, including me again, like to keep things short, crispy, and focused. Let me share one incident with you, but why on the earth would you like to hear my incident. Ok, maybe I’ll leave that on you. If you are still reading this means, hats off to you. OK, so, the incident goes like this. I have grown up in an education system, where, there were few teachers, who were giving the marks or the grades in my subjects based on the length of my answers and not exactly based on what I was writing. This made an impression in my childhood on my mind that, hey boy, you need more marks ? Ohhh, then, you gonna write big answers. Soon, I learnt that, and I started writing big big answers. Those answers fetched me, Can you guess what !!, Really high marks, almost full, and I was winning, at least I thought like that at that time.
But, you know what, when I was pursuing my post graduation, I came across one faculty in my department, who really became a good mentor of me on the way. That fellow was actually killing me, not literally but through his actions. I liked him though because of his principles and ethics. It was in his exams, I realised; that I was wrong. Long answers does not fetch long marks. It was totally wrong idea which I carried for these many years. He gave me full marks just for scribbling some fraction of ink from my pen, basically an answer of just one line !!, but the answer should be crispy and sharp and straight to the point. The incident taught me several things. ** It is not important to write lengthy answers, rather, your answer should be crispy and sharp and straight to the point **. The important thing is, it should convey the meaning and your point. Now there are different ways to do that, either you can convey the same in a crispy fashion as usual lengthy one.
Actually one can have different arguments to the things which I talked above, different perspectives. The two clear perspectives which we can easily notice belongs from the viewpoint of who is reading those answers and other is, ofcourse who is writing it. Suppose, if you are writing it, and you feel and believe and expect that the other person is able to identify and learn and understand whatever you are saying in a crispy or short language then you can surely go ahead with writing the short answers. Of course there are enough ways, with which you can prove yourself that it is the best way to convey. I won’t get into the details of that at present, but it would be great to discuss about it in some other article.
On the other side if you feel that the other person is kinda not that smart, and may need more explanation to understand and grasp the concept or the logic which you want to convey, then surely folks, you need to write big answers. So, in the present case you need to be smart enough to understand what your reader wants and likes. Does they like long reading for short reading ? Does they want to know or grasp the concept in a shorter time or longer time ? Each have its own drawbacks and advantages. I am not saying that the person who needs more explanation may not be a smart person, I am not all saying like that. Sometimes the person who ask for the more explanation maybe a highly talented guy. You might have experienced it or might have seen it in movies or so, if some crime happens, then the police or the criminal investigation team will make the life of the suspects like hell. They will throw a hell lot of questions and will try to extract each and every minute details possible from the suspects. This helps them to solve the case in a much better manner as they have more detailed information. The same can be true with this smart guys who demand huge amount of the explanation for whatever the questions they are asking. So never underestimate your readers. They are smart and talented and I am sure you will agree with me on that. Now, I can see that if you are here with me on this page, so you do you like reading long articles just like me and I really appreciate you for that.
I can definitely continue this article, with as much as I want but I feel, the more lengthy it goes, it loses its value, unless and untill it really have some sense in it. So my advice will be, always keep your articles, shorts and crispy and point to point. That will save your time as well as readers time. Not everyone may be with me on this point and I totally respect their perspective. This is because some people like writing big articles and there are also readers who like reading big articles. Ok, I guess I should conclude this article or else it may not stop soon.
Conclusion:
- Don’t go for 2 minute read or 4 minute read or any minute read on medium or anywhere. If you like the heading and if you like the starting of the article, then just give it a try, maybe, the article can prove a gold mine for you. It does not matter if it is 1 minute read for 10 minutes read. And surely, if it’s a gold mine article then it is worthy of any time.
- Never judge a book by its cover. Similarly never judge any article on the medium or anywhere just with its heading. Sometimes heading may look like gold mine, but inside it may be a crap. So, always read full article and only then give comments or judge anything. This is same thing as like half knowledge is always a dangerous kind of thing.
- Look out for all the possible perspectives. It will always help you in whatever endeavor you are. It will always keep you happy and satisfied. Now, to get the different perspectives, you have to keep your eyes always open, not literally but, you know what.