6min chapter

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229 – Less is More: Edward Everett

Anecdotally Speaking

CHAPTER

The Power of Simplicity in Communication

This chapter examines the critical role of simplicity and clarity in effective communication, contrasting verbose speeches with succinct messages from American history. It underscores the importance of understanding one's purpose in storytelling while highlighting principles like Occam's razor and the balance between complexity and straightforwardness.

00:00
Speaker 2
I just had a question. I wonder how much preparation each of them
Speaker 1
did for this. I did actually say this. Check that out? No, but I did say it. Lincoln was invited to speak a couple of days before the event. Yes. Everett asked for the event to be postponed by a month to allow himself to prepare. So he was doing a full-on
Speaker 2
history, essentially. Yes. That's what he was trying to do. Yeah. Okay, so that gives an answer to that question. Because sometimes, of course, it takes more time to be simple and brief than it does to just get an idea out. So that's another thing I was just thinking. So, yeah, simplicity, clarity. Yeah, and level
Speaker 1
of detail. Maybe you can help me turn my next thought into a business point. But Everett managed to take one of the most important, one of the most horrific, one of the most emotional, one of the most significant things in American history and tell it in a way that put people to sleep. So as I say, I'm not sure how to turn this into a business point, but even this incredible thing, and I mean incredible as in remarkable, not in any way good, this thing happened. And despite the significance of it, he was able to cure insomnia. I
Speaker 2
was reading in Scientific America this morning that there was a discussion about whether Occam's razor was in fact a, you know, a principle that you could actually believe and live by in science. You know, the idea that the simplest explanation is the best explanation. And the guy who was writing it sort of gives all these examples of where the most complicated and you know you think of quantum physics you think you know there's a whole range of things which are you would never come up with the answer if you came up with the simplest thing but it does work for communication you know there's simplification and that's why i think a lot of people get caught up especially scientists get caught up in the description of what they're doing. It's hard for them to be simple sometimes. But, yeah, it's an idea that's been flowing through people's minds for some time. I think Ockham was 13th century, so that's some time back now. Yeah, I think they're good business points, right? Yeah, yeah. Particularly the less
Speaker 1
is more and enough detail to make your point and no more. Yeah. And
Speaker 2
I think the flip side to that is you've got to know what your point is.
Speaker 1
So you know what to include, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. I guess that comes down to purposeful communication and having the right purpose. I mean, Everett might have thought his job was to describe in laborious detail the events of the three days. How many months after the event did it happen? It was November. So the battle was on the 1st to the 3rd of July. So that's
Speaker 2
been three or four months.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, the graves were still fresh. Maybe what he has
Speaker 2
done is actually create a really important historical document that, you know, people today can actually go back. Well, everyone was, you know, he was right there. He was talking to the key people. And, you know, he got a really good secondhand account, if you like, of what was going on. Well,
Speaker 1
he talked about the importance of the field notes that he spoke to people. He used people's field notes in the preparation. So he actually did a lot of research. And you're right, he's perhaps created this container, like a little time capsule that will
Speaker 2
be able to... Yeah, great insight into what really happened. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's great. That's great. Well, that's a good little story. I'm glad you told that. Now, let's give it some scores, right? Yeah. Well, I told it, so you get to go first. Yeah, look, I think that's a great, great story. You know, difficulty in that story for me is can i remember it you know like the because it's almost like the point of it is you have to have some detail of the everett side of it to really i reckon because i think the bit where you actually read out some of the uh i thought that was very telling but i'd have to remember something like that to tell that story, perhaps. But I really love it. I love the contrast. I'm giving it an eight out of ten. It's a good, I think it's a good story.
Speaker 1
Yeah. What
Speaker 2
about you? I'm going to give it an eight and a half. Oh, my God. We are creeping up to the high marks today. What's going on? And one
Speaker 1
of the things is that I will use this because we use the Gettysburg Address as an example of a clarity story. Yeah. In the past and then something happened. And so to be able to provide, I always knew that Lincoln had, that his speech was kind of like, it wasn't the highlight. It was the afterthought. Right. But I had no idea about the extent of the comparison. So this, as you say, it's added something to something
Speaker 2
that I already knew. So, yeah. No, that's fantastic. I think it's a beautiful one to do that. Fantastic. Well, there you go. Another story for us to throw there, everyone. So please, you know, get that down. Learn that story. Try it out. Let us know how you go. Yeah, we'd really love to hear your thoughts on using any of these stories that we've got, I think. How many stories do you reckon we have now, Marcus? I think this one is going to be number 239. Really? Okay. So just imagine you could tell a story every week for four years and you would still have stories to spare. Yeah. Well, let's wrap things up. Thanks everyone for listening in to Anecdotally Speaking. Of course, tune in next week for another episode on how to put your stories to work. Bye for now.

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