I don’t understand this new form of pride of not reading things because they’re “too long.” I’ll sometimes pass on great articles to friends or post the links on forums, and I’ll get a tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) response. I get the feeling that there is some chest puffing behind that tl;dr response.

I was reminded of this the other day when I saw this post on Tumblr from ShortFormBlog:

I agree, Ernie. It’s frustrating that people can’t even be bothered to read 300 words. At this rate, we’re going to devolve back to grunts and snorts for communication.

While I’m on the topic of grunts and snorts, I also don’t understand when people tell me that executives and leaders only want bullet points, that they don’t have time to read a full report or article. What kind of leader doesn’t want to know the whole story? If someone is too busy to read what’s put in front of her or him, then maybe that person has time management issues and shouldn’t be a leader.

I’d rather follow someone who has good critical reading and comprehension skills than someone who only wants the “highlights.” In fact, by asking someone to spoon feed you bullet points, you’re acknowledging that you’re not smart. That’s fine if you’re not smart. Just say, “I’m not smart, so please tell me the highlights of a story.”

But don’t say you don’t have time to read something. That proves you’re lazy, which is a far worse trait than ignorance.