The dumbiing down of society???

[Paula Sims]

I don't get it. I was just told by my boss that analyses cannot be in paragraphs -- must be in bullet points. Is this the dumbing down of our society? When a paragraph is too much to read and comprehend? Did we Twitter out our brain cells? Of course I'm a mathematician/econometrician so we do tend to bloviate a bit much -- but words only? And I'm also very dyslexic so you'd think I'd like less words. But less words are just words here. How's this for analysis (complete with bullet points):

*YOU
*ARE
*AN
*IDIOT

Is that too complex??


Thanks for letting me rant.

[Hoyt]

1. I might use that next time some lazy pissant wants something complicated

explained in a few "bullet points."

[Turbineguy]

2. In my management course I talk about giving a presentation

"....because there are times when you have to talk Management out of doing something really stupid, dangerous, illegal and expensive."

[elleng]

3. It's surely a symptom.

[inanna]

4. Yep.

Here is another symptom:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027663707

[Warpy]

5. Ever read old high school text books from the 1930s and before?

There is no comparison with the pap they give kids these days. We've been dumbed down for 80 years now and it's showing rather badly. Most people, when confronted with huge blocks of text, skip to the end, hoping for a tl:dr summary.

Part of that is time constraint, there is just too much information to plow through in any given day and we have to sleep sometime. That's why the KISS method is necessary for presentations, resumés, and other things that should be "just the facts, ma'am."

More of it is the fact that people often don't read at all unless it's a short article in a pop culture magazine in the throne room or a minimal amount of text on a computer screen.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the future, where dumbed down people are now suckers for raging fascism.

[inanna]

6. Wow....

Well said.

Yes, I've noticed the difference in the older texts as well. A much better grip on the language - for starters.

Edited to add: To your point about people not reading much anymore: Have you noticed how much smaller the school libraries are now?

[Lint Head]

7. I worked in IT trouble shooting for a corporation

20 something years. This very thing happened to me quite often. Especially when management moved or was promoted. It's called laziness. I thing you just have an intellectually lazy boss. He wants his ass covered also. Just in case there is a problem he can blame others for not having a particular detail being communicated to him. Or her. If you do a report I would follow up with an email that says. Per your instructions, here are just the bullet points. That way you have a trail. This technique kept me out of trouble more times than I can count.

[bhikkhu]

8. Bullet points were explained to me as a way of forcing a clear arguement

As in, students often lacked confidence in their own argument to the point of beating around the bush and obfusticating. Bullet points in an "executive summary" type format force a clear statement which is often otherwise lacking, and tend to improve the quality of thinking in a text.

[Hortensis]

9. Actually, this can stand on its own. I used to write

a couple dozen letters a day, technical sometimes but usually very short just recapping in writing my discussion with the recipient just before on the phone. The recipients were typically college educated working at a management/professional level.

I soon learned to do something like this:

Re:

Dear John:

It was so NIIIICE talking with you today. As we discussed, please sign and return the enclosed

Form ABC, exclusion of driver A with 5 DUIs from coverage

An envelope is enclosed for your convenience. Your policy will be issued shortly after it is received.

Please call me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

This was 30 years ago. If that seems minimalistic for a large account for a valuable client, it was for a reason. Over a third of these calls and letters resulted in the recipient calling a day or so later when the letter arrived (snail mail isn't really so snail in cities) and saying, "Now, what is this?"

I don't know why.

I just learned to delete virtually all distracting words, drop-and-center whatever I wanted them to do, and then highlight it with bright-yellow marker! That cut the calls by about half.

(BTW, I have read that that theory about people learning better in different ways, verbal, written, touch, etc., is mostly not true. I don't doubt for a minute that some people don't like to read, but I have to believe this had more to do with a desire for person-to-person interaction, not paper-to-person.)

In any case, your guy is obviously trying to maximize the chance that the points will actually be noted.

[Skittles]

10. twitterization is what I call it

yes, everyone wants to be spoon-fed now

[melm00se]

11. you are just noticing this?

at 1st "professional" job (in the 80's), my manager directed that all memos (yes, actual typed pieces of paper) should be in bullet points with as little prose as possible (or necessary).

Her explanation was that bullet points should contains the facts necessary for the higher ups (her) to draw a conclusion. If there was a recommendation or course of action, put it in the last sentence.

As I moved up, I saw the advantages of this as I would see dozens of memos a day and I found that the longer the memo (and later emails), the likelihood of the communication becoming a meandering incoherent mess increased rather dramatically. When this happened, I spent time sending it back for clarification (I am not an English teacher) or scheduling a meeting to discuss.

additionally, I saw some of my more junior people spend an inordinate amount of time drafting and redrafting these communications when they could be doing more productive things than working on the 9th revision of communication.

[davekriss]

16. That's my experience, too

If you want to be heard up-hierarchy in an organization, concision is mandatory.

My undergrad was English Lit - imagine my early joy in crafting several logically irrefutable paragraphs and sending them up. They were alway "well received" but when discussing them face-to-face I realized my audience didn't read more than the first couple of sentences.

Then, as I rose in the corporate world I understood why. I receive up to 150 or more emails a day. I have seconds to digest what is said. I so welcome the concise, bulleted, brief email!

Note to the more junior: come up with a catchy subject line, it increases the likelihood that the exec will open your email.

[nilesobek]

12. Ironically, the title is spelled incorrectly.

[Bonx]

14. Loks fien to me.

[GaYellowDawg]

15. Well...

When II saw iit, II was iimmediiately concerned. II also thought iit was iironiic. But the oriigiinal poster's poiint was actually a gooooooood one.

[nilesobek]

17. Wasn't too sure, my drain has been bamaged for a while now.

Its a good point and a good article.

[Orrex]

13. Honestly, it depends on the context, the material, the timing, and the audience

Depending on who's going to be reading this analysis, then it may not be up to you to decide whether they have time or inclination to read paragraphs, especially if experience has sensitized them to shitty writing or long-windedness--both of which are epidemic in the corporate world.

It might not even be a reflection on you. If they've read nine reports that were poorly written, then why would they want to roll the dice and assume that your analysis will be eloquent and effective?

For that matter, your boss might simply want a summary analysis that will figure into a larger process, so lengthy prose might be out of place or otherwise undesirable.


Might you provide your analysis in paragraph format with an accompanying bullet point summary?