Steven Engelhardt

Raymond Chen wrote an article today about how he couches his writing to preempt “nitpicking”. This hit close to home.

In my first drafts, I frequently add phrases such as “I think …” and adverbs such as “often”; the title of this blog post is an allusion to such behavior. These changes add precision but cause dramatic harm to readability and authority. I now make conscious effort to minimize these types of phrases.

It’s too bad Raymond feels the need to shift the balance the other way.