Optimization. Why use many word when few word do trick?

▲ andsoitis a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Why use many word when few word do trick?

Be concise.

OR

Brief is best.

OR

Eschew verbosity

  etc.

	▲	gjvc a day ago \| parent [-]
		"Omit needless words." -- William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White., The Elements of Style

▲ stavros a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What I find funny about "why use many word when few word do trick?" is that it's only slightly shorter than the regular "why use many words when few words do the trick?"

	▲	rapind a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I always figured that was part of the joke, because a writer came up with it, and a writer would know (I assume?).
	▲	happycube 18 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		less word better(, many words bad)
	▲	inopinatus 21 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The latter is not a complete alternative, it is ambiguously conflating vocabulary scale with word count, and also, it is not as funny

▲ TiredOfLife 21 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

See world

▲ gaigalas a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Optimization on a idiosyncrasy. The same thing that makes Claude repeat "That was the most important thing you said in this whole conversation" is what makes grug speak optimize on token usage.

Real humans get non-primary information from word variation. It's reasonable to hypothesize that it has a role in thinking things, because it endures. Our languages need to breathe over time, and flourishing might be one of the aspects that allows that breathing space.