#brevity — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #brevity, aggregated by home.social.
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🎭 Ah, the #art #of "phronesis" checking! 🤓 Apparently, the secret to a passing check is simply to redefine "broken" #as "works as #intended." 🛠️ Who knew that #coherence really just means "keep it short and sweet"? 😂
https://phronesis.world/papers/ways-of-checking/ #phronesis #checking #humor #broken #brevity #HackerNews #ngated -
🎭 Ah, the #art #of "phronesis" checking! 🤓 Apparently, the secret to a passing check is simply to redefine "broken" #as "works as #intended." 🛠️ Who knew that #coherence really just means "keep it short and sweet"? 😂
https://phronesis.world/papers/ways-of-checking/ #phronesis #checking #humor #broken #brevity #HackerNews #ngated -
Applying Brevity and Language Efficiency in Prompt Engineering
#HackerNews #Brevity #PromptEngineering #LanguageEfficiency #TechInsights
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Applying Brevity and Language Efficiency in Prompt Engineering
#HackerNews #Brevity #PromptEngineering #LanguageEfficiency #TechInsights
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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
Life is a shadowy, strange, and winding road on which we travel for a little way — a few short steps — just from the cradle, with its lullaby of love, to the low and quiet way-side inn, where all at last must sleep, and where the only salutation is — Good-night.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-11) “The Christian Religion,” “Part 2” North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 300More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #brevity #death #eternalrest #farewell #life #lifetime #meaningoflife #mortality #restinpeace
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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
Life is a shadowy, strange, and winding road on which we travel for a little way — a few short steps — just from the cradle, with its lullaby of love, to the low and quiet way-side inn, where all at last must sleep, and where the only salutation is — Good-night.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-11) “The Christian Religion,” “Part 2” North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 300More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #brevity #death #eternalrest #farewell #life #lifetime #meaningoflife #mortality #restinpeace
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The man four stories up
The man four stories up,
shielded by the shadow
of a floor-to-ceiling window,
appears as smooth
as the man in the moon.
He sips something hot
from a white ceramic cup
and peers out at the blackness
as if we’re all coated in the stuff,
while he is light, and goodness.
A cleanliness amidst the putrid
stenches, the barefoot beggars,
and oily street merchants
blurred together in a pit
of city scum.
See, below him, beings
exist in a lower state
of consciousness
and should simply lighten up.
©2026 | K.F. HartlessCover Art: “The Man in the Moon” Maxfield Parrish, 1922
https://youtu.be/Wy45pE0OJm4?si=vabBGj46pwfTDFCg
#brevity #existential #moon #Reflection #socialJustice -
The man four stories up
The man four stories up,
shielded by the shadow
of a floor-to-ceiling window,
appears as smooth
as the man in the moon.
He sips something hot
from a white ceramic cup
and peers out at the blackness
as if we’re all coated in the stuff,
while he is light, and goodness.
A cleanliness amidst the putrid
stenches, the barefoot beggars,
and oily street merchants
blurred together in a pit
of city scum.
See, below him, beings
exist in a lower state
of consciousness
and should simply lighten up.
©2026 | K.F. HartlessCover Art: “The Man in the Moon” Maxfield Parrish, 1922
https://youtu.be/Wy45pE0OJm4?si=vabBGj46pwfTDFCg
#brevity #existential #moon #Reflection #socialJustice -
I have been running a social media account of an organisation in the last years and remember how I felt that I had to post a lot back when the organisation was still on twitter. How AI was such a relieve when I didnt have to think anymore to produce tiny useless posts to shoot into this void.
So good twitter is dead (at least for me).
The Courage to Stop https://zeldman.com/2026/04/15/the-courage-to-stop/ #Brevity, #Communication, #Edit, #Editing, #Essentials, #KillYourDarlings, #LessButBetter, #Usability, #Whitespace
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Memento mori — remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die — what makes this any different from a half hour?
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Path of Life [Calendar of Wisdom; Круг чтения], ch. 21 “Living in the Present,” sec. 5.12 (1903-1911) [(tr. Cote (2002)]More about this quote: wist.info/tolstoy-leo/83806/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #tolstoy #leotolstoy #pathoflife #brevity #death #goodliving #lifespan #living #mementomori #mortality #prioritization #timelimit
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The Fledglings Sit
The fledgings sit, wings clipped,
waiting on a runway.
What will become of their paper planes
soaring deserted valleys
and migrating vast cities?
Before they took their mouths
from their mother's beak,
they learned to not speak,
sit ,and wait, and fold quitely.
©2026 | K.F. HartlessCover Art: ” Airport Painting” Karolina Zglobicka
https://youtu.be/ewRjZoRtu0Y?si=6C56hTh6VhRetUqM
GloPoWriMo#28 Today, try writing a poem that follows the same beats: three sentences, six lines: statement, question, conclusion.
#brevity #existential #GloPoWrimo #napowrimo #nature -
The Fledglings Sit
The fledgings sit, wings clipped,
waiting on a runway.
What will become of their paper planes
soaring deserted valleys
and migrating vast cities?
Before they took their mouths
from their mother's beak,
they learned to not speak,
sit ,and wait, and fold quitely.
©2026 | K.F. HartlessCover Art: ” Airport Painting” Karolina Zglobicka
https://youtu.be/ewRjZoRtu0Y?si=6C56hTh6VhRetUqM
GloPoWriMo#28 Today, try writing a poem that follows the same beats: three sentences, six lines: statement, question, conclusion.
#brevity #existential #GloPoWrimo #napowrimo #nature -
May I direct your attention to this brilliantly concise post?
The Courage to Stop https://zeldman.com/2026/04/15/the-courage-to-stop/ #Brevity, #Communication, #Edit, #Editing, #Essentials, #KillYourDarlings, #LessButBetter, #Usability, #Whitespace
#AmReading #Writing -
May I direct your attention to this brilliantly concise post?
The Courage to Stop https://zeldman.com/2026/04/15/the-courage-to-stop/ #Brevity, #Communication, #Edit, #Editing, #Essentials, #KillYourDarlings, #LessButBetter, #Usability, #Whitespace
#AmReading #Writing -
The intensity of the favour of fortune is often balanced by the shortness of its duration, for fortune gets tired of carrying any one very long upon her shoulders.
[Recompénsase tal vez la brevedad de la duración con la intensión del favor. Cánsase la fortuna de llevar a uno a cuestas tan a la larga.]Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 38 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #brevity #fortune #gambling #goodluck #luck
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2/2 Don’t skip the footnote and comments.
“COMMENTS BY REVIEWER A:
I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be
published without revision. Clearly it is the most concise manuscript I have ever seen …” -
2/2 Don’t skip the footnote and comments.
“COMMENTS BY REVIEWER A:
I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be
published without revision. Clearly it is the most concise manuscript I have ever seen …” -
Brevity was always a discipline. Now it’s a statement.
https://zeldman.com/2026/04/15/the-courage-to-stop/#HumanWritingInAITimes #brevity #WriteBetter #LessButBetter #KillYourDarlings
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Brevity was always a discipline. Now it’s a statement.
https://zeldman.com/2026/04/15/the-courage-to-stop/#HumanWritingInAITimes #brevity #WriteBetter #LessButBetter #KillYourDarlings
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Brevity was always a discipline. Now it’s a statement. zeldman.com/2026/04/15/t... #WriteBetter #writing #brevity #usability #KillYourDarlings
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents - The... -
Why do so few scientists use Fahrenheit? According to Isaac Asimov, the original 100°F "fixed point" may have been based on a sick cow with a fever. A 300-year-old error that still dictates US weather today. Precision matters. #HistoryOfScience #Physics #Brevity #Celsius
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Why do so few scientists use Fahrenheit? According to Isaac Asimov, the original 100°F "fixed point" may have been based on a sick cow with a fever. A 300-year-old error that still dictates US weather today. Precision matters. #HistoryOfScience #Physics #Brevity #Celsius
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Begin with an arresting sentence; close with a strong summary; in between speak simply, clearly, and always to the point; and above all be brief.
-- William J. Mayo -
Begin with an arresting sentence; close with a strong summary; in between speak simply, clearly, and always to the point; and above all be brief.
-- William J. Mayo -
A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82791…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #brevity #enjoyment #passageoftime #play #playing #sloth #summer #time #vacation #relaxation
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Qodo's #AI apparently "outshines" #Claude in code reviews, but you'd need a PhD in #jargon to figure out how. 🤖✨ Instead of book reviews, maybe they should book a course in #brevity. 🧠💼
https://www.qodo.ai/blog/qodo-outperforms-claude-in-code-review-benchmark/ #Qodo #CodeReviews #HackerNews #ngated -
Qodo's #AI apparently "outshines" #Claude in code reviews, but you'd need a PhD in #jargon to figure out how. 🤖✨ Instead of book reviews, maybe they should book a course in #brevity. 🧠💼
https://www.qodo.ai/blog/qodo-outperforms-claude-in-code-review-benchmark/ #Qodo #CodeReviews #HackerNews #ngated -
Whene’er you lecture, be concise: the soul
Takes in short maxims, and retains them whole:
But pour in water when the vessel’s filled,
It simply dribbles over and is spilled.
[Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta
percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles:
omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 335ff (2.3.335-337) (19 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/33634/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #advice #brevity #briefness #counsel #edification #keepitsimple #lesson #maxim #moral #moralizing #precept #succinct #teaching #wisdom
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Dear sire, and offspring worthy of your fire!
We bards are dupes to what ourselves admire.
Would I be brief — I grow confused and coarse;
Who aims at smoothness, fails in fire and force;
In him who soars aloft, bombast is found;
Who fears to face the tempest, crawls aground.
Who courts variety and fain would ring
A thousand changes on the self-same string,
Will paint, as ’twere in fancy’s wildest mood
Boars in the wave and dolphins in the wood.
Thus even error, shun’d without address,
Breeds error, diff’rent in its kind, not less.
[Maxima pars vatum, pater et iuvenes patre digni,
decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro,
obscurus fio; sectantem levia nervi
deficiunt animique; professus grandia turget;
serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae:
qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
delphinum silvis adpingit, fluctibus aprum:
in vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 24ff (2.3.24-31) (19 BC) [tr. Howes (1845)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/14582/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #arspoetica #poet #bombast #brevity #brief #caution #clarity #criticism #edit #error #explanation #extremes #faults #force #mistake #obscurity #overcompensation #overcorrection #poetry #smoothness #strangeness #style #succinctness #talent #timidity #tryingtoohard #unintelligibility #variety #vigor #writing
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Dear sire, and offspring worthy of your fire!
We bards are dupes to what ourselves admire.
Would I be brief — I grow confused and coarse;
Who aims at smoothness, fails in fire and force;
In him who soars aloft, bombast is found;
Who fears to face the tempest, crawls aground.
Who courts variety and fain would ring
A thousand changes on the self-same string,
Will paint, as ’twere in fancy’s wildest mood
Boars in the wave and dolphins in the wood.
Thus even error, shun’d without address,
Breeds error, diff’rent in its kind, not less.
[Maxima pars vatum, pater et iuvenes patre digni,
decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro,
obscurus fio; sectantem levia nervi
deficiunt animique; professus grandia turget;
serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae:
qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
delphinum silvis adpingit, fluctibus aprum:
in vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 24ff (2.3.24-31) (19 BC) [tr. Howes (1845)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/14582/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #arspoetica #poet #bombast #brevity #brief #caution #clarity #criticism #edit #error #explanation #extremes #faults #force #mistake #obscurity #overcompensation #overcorrection #poetry #smoothness #strangeness #style #succinctness #talent #timidity #tryingtoohard #unintelligibility #variety #vigor #writing
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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
Tell yourself, when you feel exasperated and out of all patience, that this mortal life endures but a moment; it will not be long before we shall one and all have been laid to rest.
[ὅταν λίαν ἀγανακτῇς ἢ καὶ δυσπαθῇς, ἀκαριαῖος ὁ ἀνθρώπειος βίος καὶ μετ᾿ ὀλίγον πάντες ἐξετάθημεν.]Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 11, ch. 18 (11.18) (AD 161-180) [tr. Staniforth (1964)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/8183…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #anger #annoyance #brevity #death #frustration #grievance #impatience #indignance #life #lifeisshort #loseyourtemper #mortality #passageoftime #provocation #resentment #upset #vexation #worry
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So, I was in the kitchen and said something with a mouthful of food to hubby, and he commented with, "Blub blub blub blub?" To which I replied, "Solo." And OMGs! We both cracked up laughing. I'm in tears even! Just the release that was needed!
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So, I was in the kitchen and said something with a mouthful of food to hubby, and he commented with, "Blub blub blub blub?" To which I replied, "Solo." And OMGs! We both cracked up laughing. I'm in tears even! Just the release that was needed!
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Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/81515/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #brevity #mortality #wasteoftime #wastingtime
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What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.
Gene Fowler (1890-1960) American journalist, author, and dramatist. [b. Eugene Devlan]
(Attributed)More about this quote: wist.info/fowler-gene/80854/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #genefowler #achievement #brevity #challengers #fragility #rivalry #success #victory
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📟 Ah, the art of digital stone tablets—aka #UDP7777, the 'pager' for those who never left 1998. 🗿 Forget modern communication; embrace error codes as a love language. 🧑🚀 Welcome to the future, where #brevity is the soul of outdated tech. 🙄
https://www.udp7777.com/ #digitalstone #tablets #pager #retrocommunication #technostalgia #HackerNews #ngated -
📟 Ah, the art of digital stone tablets—aka #UDP7777, the 'pager' for those who never left 1998. 🗿 Forget modern communication; embrace error codes as a love language. 🧑🚀 Welcome to the future, where #brevity is the soul of outdated tech. 🙄
https://www.udp7777.com/ #digitalstone #tablets #pager #retrocommunication #technostalgia #HackerNews #ngated -
Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less (Revised and Updated) "Brevity is confidence. Length is fear." Sale: $27 to $2.99 by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz Rating: 4.5/5 (2,570 Reviews) #communication #writing #business #books #productivity #brevity #BookSk
Smart Brevity: The Power of Sa... -
Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less (Revised and Updated) "Brevity is confidence. Length is fear." Sale: $27 to $2.99 by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz Rating: 4.5/5 (2,570 Reviews) #communication #writing #business #books #productivity #brevity #BookSk
Smart Brevity: The Power of Sa... -
I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down.
-- Edward O. Wilson⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #EdwardOWilson #Brevity
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #PuebloBonito #Ruins #360panorama #NewMexico
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I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down.
-- Edward O. Wilson⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #EdwardOWilson #Brevity
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #PuebloBonito #Ruins #360panorama #NewMexico
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Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal Intime (1869-12-16) [tr. Ward (1897)]More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/amiel-henri-frederic…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #henriamiel #brevity #journey #kindness #lifespan #love #loveyourneighbor #meaningoflife #mortality
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Ah, the pinnacle of brevity! 📚✨ This "TLDR" is the War and Peace of developer guides, cramming encyclopedia-level content into a thimble. 🤡 It's a marvel of reductive engineering—explaining everything and nothing all at once. 🚀💡
https://taintedcoders.com/bevy/tldr #TLDR #DeveloperGuides #Brevity #Engineering #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Ah, the pinnacle of brevity! 📚✨ This "TLDR" is the War and Peace of developer guides, cramming encyclopedia-level content into a thimble. 🤡 It's a marvel of reductive engineering—explaining everything and nothing all at once. 🚀💡
https://taintedcoders.com/bevy/tldr #TLDR #DeveloperGuides #Brevity #Engineering #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Kent Dybvig dares to redefine "brevity" by cramming a Scheme machine into 400 lines of C, presumably to make programmers feel inadequate. 🤯 Meanwhile, #GitHub practices its impression of a revolving door—sign in, sign out, repeat ad nauseam. 🔄💻
https://gist.github.com/swatson555/8cc36d8d022d7e5cc44a5edb2c4f7d0b #KentDybvig #Brevity #Challenge #RevolvingDoor #Programming #Humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Apple’s cheap fix to iPhone 17 Pro “scratchgate” sits on your dining table https://www.diningandcooking.com/2307909/apples-cheap-fix-to-iphone-17-pro-scratchgate-sits-on-your-dining-table/ #Apple #Brevity #dining #iphone #IPhone17Pro #Phones
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Remember, all
Who live on earth are mortal, great and small:
Then take, good sir, your pleasure while you may;
With life so short ’twere wrong to lose a day.
[Carpe viam, mihi crede, comes, terrestria quando
mortalis animas vivunt sortita neque ulla est
aut magno aut parvo leti fuga: quo, bone, circa,
dum licet, in rebus jucundis vive beatus;
vive memor quam sis aevi brevis.]Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 2, # 6, “Hoc erat in votis,” l. 93ff (2.6.93-97) (30 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/horace/77996/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #brevity #carpediem #death #enjoyment #life #livefortheday #mindfulness #mortality #pleasure #seizetheday #living
