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This makes me sad. Instead of educating ourselves, we're supposed to give up and write for the lowest common denominator, whose reading skills continue to erode. I don't need my technical documents to read like DFW, but let's not take all the fun out of it.

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It shouldn't. Everyone's time should be respected. Clarity and conciseness in writing or in speech is a great way to show that.

I think those are two separate matters:

Indeed the average reading skills seem to continue to erode (or, at least, attention spans have been shown to decline, the Flynn effect has stalled, and functional iliteracacy of supposedly educated people is at an all times high)

... but we still should strive for clarity, whether we're addressing the average Joe or DFW (perhaps you've meant EWD?).

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