Episode Details
Back to Episodes“Dense writing might be a sign of muddled thinking” by Ande T.
Description
While my account is only 1 year old, I've been a lurker in the EA community long before that. I enjoy going through posts and comments every day, and I appreciate how proactive everybody is in tackling and discussing different problems. Generally, my experience with the online community has ranged from neutral to positive.
But there is one thing that has been bothering me, and that is the writing quality / style in EA spaces. Even though there have been enough discussions about this before, I want to highlight that dense, obscuring writing can do a lot of harm, and that's something we should solve as an efficiency-oriented community.
It might sound like I'm talking about personal aesthetic preferences, but this is a genuine issue. EA prides itself on rigorous epistemics, but dense, obscuring writing is often the opposite of rigorous.
What is dense or obscuring writing?
To be straightforward: dense writing isn't the same as complex writing. A post can cover a truly difficult theme and still be clear. Dense writing is what happens when the manner of writing hides the point of the post rather than communicating it.
Dense writing tends to show up like this:
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Outline:
(01:00) What is dense or obscuring writing?
(02:00) Why might it be harmful?
(03:17) Intellectual honesty vs. intellectual dishonesty in writing
(04:41) Are there any benefits to dense writing?
(05:32) Are you interested in developing a straightforward and clear writing?
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First published:
March 21st, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.