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Winning over the TL;DR crowd

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in General, Productivity. No Comments on Winning over the TL;DR crowd

Bombarded with an endless stream of content to consume, the majority often skips longer publications.

Often, the reason won’t be because of the contents, but because of the knee-jerk reaction to the longer blocks of text. Conversely, there’s a group that doesn’t care for stripped-down versions of everything they read. They want the details, the back story – the whole nine yards.

Can we appeal to both groups? I have an idea that we could apply to digital content. It’s something that’s been on my mind for some time now.

It doesn’t use AI, machine learning, or [insert any buzzword here]. The software part is some Javascript code that will enable you to present your writing in different forms. All the work is on you, figuring out how to structure the content to fit this form.

Every concept worth anything should have a name, so I call mine – TooLooDR (I love saying too-loo out loud).

TooLooDR explained in 3 sentences

TooLooDR is a writing and reading concept that aims to present one article in several forms and lengths by separating the content into multiple levels of detail.

Its structure guides the author to think in terms of complexity, lengthiness, and targeted audience for each level they create.

The goal of TooLooDR is to offer brevity for those who are in a hurry, but also provide more detail on demand for those who want more.

Before going any further, let me show you what a TooLooDR article looks like. An example is worth a thousand words (says he unironically, knowing it will probably sound stupid in this context).

Example of a TooLooDR article

Note: The content of the example article is irrelevant. I just needed something as an example, so I took the previous blog post I wrote. Keep in mind that I didn’t change the text. I wanted to prove that we can apply this concept even to the text that wasn’t written with it in mind (let’s call that kind of text – TooLooDR non-friendly text).

Clicking on GIF will open a new tab with the fully functional demo.

What’s going on here?

I will try to explain how I envision each TooLooDR level.

I’m mentioning things like “flow” and “artistic style” below, and I know that may sound like I’m some pompous, deluded guy that thinks he knows how to write. I don’t. It’s how I envision someone that actually can write using TooLooDR.

Also, If you read this part, and go back to check the demo article, you can see that the example article and my idea of the perfect TooLooDR article differ. Again, I’m just a poor developer dude that blogs occasionally.

Level 1 (tldr1)

This level should contain the bare-bones, stripped-down version of the article. Think of it as a modern equivalent of telegram-style writing. Don’t think about the flow and don’t think about the artistic quality of this part. It can be ugly (well, it would be better if it’s not) if you can’t help it. The only purpose of this level is to send your message across – loud and clear!

This should get the attention of the “tl;dr” sayers, denying them the pleasure to reply with that same “tl;dr” in your comments.

Depending on the length of the entire article, this level should contain approximately 15 to 25 percent of the whole TooLooDR article.

Level 2 (tldr2)

This is the golden middle. It expands the dry and lifeless sentences of the previous level to a richer form, adding adjectives and adverbs. It also adds additional information to back up the claims made at the level below.

This is where you should make sure that your article has a certain flow to it. Make it pretty and make it engaging. This is actually what an entire non-TooLooDR article should look like.

Depending on the length of the entire article, this level (which means tldr1 + tldr2) should make up approximately 45 to 60 percent of the whole TooLooDR article.

Level 3 (tldr3)

Level 3 is your all-you-can-eat buffet of detail. This level is for those invested in the topic. It’s intended to display background information, low-level detail, everything that you as an author wanted to put in your article, but thought it would be too much.

You can go nuts here, really. Of course, you don’t want to write gibberish that has nothing to do with the rest of the article.

What’s wrong with the abstract?

You could say that the solution to this problem is the standard abstract you can see used in most of the publications.

There is nothing wrong with having an abstract. Heck, you can even write one before your TooLooDR article. I think they serve a different purpose.

The principal goal of this concept I’m writing about is making your content progressive. Empowering you to craft your content in a way where levels are intertwined and their subtraction or addition provokes interest from your readers.

Conclusion

It takes time to write something engaging, and it takes even more time having to think about the different forms in which people can consume the content you write.

The question is – is it worth it?

I need to write several articles using this concept to test exactly how much more time it takes me to do so following the TooLooDR concept.

I believe it won’t make much of a difference for me, because I already change each sentence I write multiple times before hitting that “publish button”.

Just like I stated at the beginning of this post that there are different types of people when it comes to reading, there are probably even more different types of people when it comes to writing.

Like always, your mileage may vary.

Reading debt – bookmarking shit you’ll never read

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Productivity. No Comments on Reading debt – bookmarking shit you’ll never read

Reading debt (also known as bookmark debt or Ctrl-D compulsion) is a concept in casual web browsing that reflects the implied cost of additional bookmark organization and undesirable future reading.

It’s caused by reckless pressing of Ctrl-D instead of using your brain for a moment to consider if you’ll ever want to read the damn thing later.

No, this isn’t an existent, known concept. I wrote it into its existence a few moments ago, following the sentence structure found on the Wikipedia page about technical debt.

It does however embody a sentiment of frustration that revolves around an unorganized mess created by hoarding and bookmarking material that will probably never be read.

This Friday afternoon, as I was adding yet another bookmark to the already overcrowded bookmark bar (filled with idiosyncratically named folders, the names of which are now reduced to mostly two-character acronyms, so more can fit), I decided I had enough and determined to do a general cleanup.

Just as a junk food addict would say, “This is my last burger before I go on a diet!” I said to myself, “This is my last recklessly created bookmark!”

Finding the solution

I remember I used Pocket some years ago – before Mozilla acquired it, and before it changed its name (it was named “Read it Later” previously).

My research went that way – looking at the current state of Pocket and its alternatives, including Pinboard, Instapaper, and Raindrop.

While I definitely understand how some people find value in these services, I realized they wouldn’t solve my problem. If anything, they would only make it worse – encouraging me to save more and more articles to read later, creating even more reading debt.

These services would help me organize the debt better, and they would undoubtedly display my hoarded treasure in a sexy way, but that’s not what I want. I want to get rid of (most of) it.

Shift in thinking

I ended up going to bed that night after failing to come up with a proper fix that’ll prevent me from ending up in the same situation two months from now – being overwhelmed by the amassed heap of hyperlinks I considered deserving of keeping at the time.

I kept the reading debt problem loop running in my mind for the next two days, albeit with a lower priority. What I came up with is a low-tech solution. So low tech, it consists of merely three questions I’ll ask myself every time before I want to save something to read later and a simple weekly reminder that will notify me to revise the status.

This is the algorithm:

  1. Every time before you want to save something for later, ask yourself this:
    1. Is this an advertisement or a puff piece?
    2. Does this have a short expiry date, with no relevance to you, your family, or your job?
    3. Do you need this for your future research/writing/development?
  2. If the answer to the first two questions is no, and the answer to the last question is yes, bookmark the reading material.
  3. Revise the status of the reading material weekly. If the article has not been read within a week, trash it. If you need it for further research, tag it and store it properly.

Only a week has passed since I incorporated this into my thinking process, but I can already say I recognize the benefits after the first revision.

Who knows, maybe it’s just me being more conscious and mindful about the problem, and the whole three-part process is unwarranted. Maybe the only reason I became more conscious and mindful is due to that three-part process.

It doesn’t matter. What matters is I’m on a good way to reduce my reading debt problem. If you have a better solution, I would love to hear about it!

Don’t ignore rejection emails

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Productivity. No Comments on Don’t ignore rejection emails

Many people are currently facing unemployment or have already been laid off. Times are tough. We’re amidst major lockdowns, quarantines, and we’re uncertain of our financial future.

With all that in mind, if you find yourself in a situation where your job is on the line, or you’re already without one – recovering from it can be problematic. You’ll be sending many emails, and many of those will yield a rejection. But that’s nothing to be upset about – it’s a normal part of the process.

Rejection email – this is where the catch is. Most people will get that email, hit the delete button, and try to forget it as soon as possible. Don’t do that! Whether you’re a freelancer searching for a new gig, or you’re looking for a full-time job, one thing is sure – you want to have a steady income of opportunities going your way.

What to do instead?

Accept the rejection gracefully, don’t take it personally (it seldom is), and shoot an email back. Start by thanking the person for their time. Leave the doors open by offering your services in the future if ever needed. With that additional minute or two, you’ve accomplished at least two things:

  1. You left the door open for more natural and not so awkward future communication
  2. By acting professional and being positive, you made yourself stand out in a crowd of what is probably tens or hundreds of other applicants

It’s purely anecdotal, but by doing this simple step, I had people getting back to me even after one or two years when they were searching for new candidates.
After I write a follow-up email like that one, I will do the following:

  1. Make an entry in my CRM (I’m using Monica, but you can use something simple such as the Contact app you’re using) writing down contact details of the person, job/gig I was applying for, and the reason for rejection.
  2. I will connect with the person on LinkedIn if they have an account there. That way, I can do a quick check on their current professional whereabouts in case I want to reach out to them again.

I invite you to try it out. It’s a neat and low-cost way of widening your professional network. Who knows, your next opportunity might come from a person that had to turn you down in the past, whatever the reason was.