I keep reading documents within the context of my work life and feel exhausted by them. They are very, very long. The same idea keeps coming back in slightly different words. I get to the end and still have to work out what the author thinks we should do.
My frustrated reaction is: this is full of AI shit. I can’t know how every document was written, or how much effort went into it. What I do know is that I’m spending time untangling something that arrived looking finished.
I want us to take more care with that. Being clear is a kindness to the person who has to read what you’ve written.
Somebody still has to do the editing
AI makes it easy to turn a few thoughts into a substantial-looking document. Whether those thoughts needed expanding is a separate question.
In How to protect yourself from workslop, Sean Goedecke describes the imbalance: producing a wall of AI text takes very little effort; reading it still takes time. He also makes room for AI-assisted writing that somebody has still put real effort into. The presence of AI alone doesn’t make it workslop.
I use AI, too. But authors still need to decide what matters and edit the result. Otherwise, every reader has to do that work separately. Across a team, that’s a lot of attention spent recovering a point the author could have made once.
I want to know what you recommend and why. If you’re uncertain, tell me what you’re uncertain about. If you need something from me, please say what it is before I’ve read six pages.
I wrote about respecting a reader’s attention in the context of instructional writing a couple of years ago. AI has made me feel more strongly about it. We can produce words so easily now, and I have exactly as much energy to read them as I did before.
Stop hedging and have an opinion
Another thing I often notice in AI writing is hedging instead of making a decision. Counterpoints can help readers understand the trade-offs, but in a proposal or opinion piece, I still want to know where the author lands. A report may need to present findings without advocating a position. A recommendation needs to recommend something.
There’s power in being succinct, too. Writing down a clear recommendation makes you decide what you believe. It gives other people something they can challenge or act on.
Give people something to work with
Sometimes a few more words make a message much more useful. “This makes no sense” is short, but leaves somebody with very little to work with. “I couldn’t follow how you got to this recommendation. Can you explain it?” gives them a question they can answer, and allows for the possibility that I’ve missed something.
The same goes for positive feedback. “Thanks, looks good” is pleasant enough. “Your explanation of the trade-offs helped me make the decision. Thank you” tells somebody what I appreciated about their work, and what they could do again.
Those extra words are doing useful work. Being succinct means keeping the detail and warmth that help somebody understand or respond.
Do the editing before you send it
Before I send a document, I want to check that a reader can find the point, understand my reasoning, and know whether I need anything from them. That means cutting repetition, stating my view where it’s called for, and keeping the context they need.
AI can help with that editing, too. If it saves me time writing, I want some of that saving to reach the person reading. I would appreciate the same from others.