In 1946, George Orwell wrote an essay called Politics and the English Language. He was tired of how people used vague, bloated language to hide weak ideas.
He said:
“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
Orwell wasn’t just talking about politicians. He was talking about everyone who hides behind words. The kind of writing that sounds smart but says nothing.
The kind that uses phrases like “leverage synergies” or “drive holistic alignment.” You read it, and it feels like English, but you have no clue what it means. During my time in the corporate world, I was constantly exposed to that writing, and it always annoyed me.
But here’s the problem: No matter how much you dislike vague writing, if you’re exposed to it, you risk becoming a vague writer!
Orwell admitted that as well. He gave an example of how he changed his own vague writing. One of his sentences looked like this:
“Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity.”
Then he rewrote it as:
“I believe that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language.”
Same idea. One hides behind words. The other tells the truth.
Vague writing comes from vague thinking
Orwell emphasized that vague writing is a direct cause of vague thinking.
When you can’t express what you mean, it’s usually because you don’t know what you mean.
And that problem is getting worse today. When are people forced to do some thinking?
In between watching TikTok videos or sending back and forth memes to each other?
We hardly ever practice our thinking and writing skills. During the day, we do our work, and in our time off, we just consume content.
Now, if you have a dynamic job that forces you to think about new solutions every day, you don’t really need to make time to practice your thinking skills.
For example, if you design and make custom furniture for a living, you’re constantly commissioned to make new pieces. And every customer requires something different.
But most of us don’t have careers like that. We generally do the same thing every day.
But let’s say that your work does require complex problem-solving.
The problem is that we as humans tend to become complacent. After a while, we all get used to our work and risk doing work on autopilot. I like to believe that my work is also dynamic, but the truth is that my job as an author is to turn complex ideas into simple ones.
The underlying principle is the same. And that’s why I’ve had many periods of complacency as well. That’s why I’m also always investing in stocks.
Being an active investor challenges me to think about my stock picks every day. What should I buy? What should I sell? Why? What’s happening in the economy?
Thinking and journaling about those questions really keeps me sharp. I’m constantly challenging my own thinking and making sure I can articulate my thoughts into coherent sentences.
6 practical rules for clear writing
Alright, writing clearly is important. And to write clearly, you must think clearly.
Because if you can do that, your life will be better on every level. A clear thinker will…
- write better AI prompts
- understand themselves better
- be able to set goals and knows how to achieve them.
That’s just a few of the benefits of becoming a clear thinker and writer. And this is now more relevant than ever.
Let’s go back to George Orwell for some advice.
He ended his essay with practical rules that feel more relevant than ever (and apply perfectly to AI prompts as well):
- Never use a metaphor or other figure of speech you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Use direct, active language that shows who is doing what, instead of hiding the action behind vague phrasing.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
That’s the “clear thought creates clear output” philosophy distilled.
Break the rules!
Orwell’s last point is my favorite one: Clarity and honesty matter more than blindly following rules.
So even though we’ve laid out a bunch of rules and we can create systems for thinking/writing better, the goal is NOT to always stick to them.
If following a writing rule makes your sentence stiff, unnatural, or false, just break the rule!
The goal isn’t to sound or look perfect in today’s world.
It’s to say something true and human.
