Couldn't load the page — here's the crux of writing clearly

1the snag

I tried to open that exact page and hit a security checkpoint — a bot-verification wall, not real content, so I can't quote its specific text to you.

2the tradition

But I can teach you honestly what that essay title points at — this is a real, well-known crux from the LessWrong writing-advice tradition, built around one core mechanism.

3the split

The core claim: most bad writing fails not from weak vocabulary, but from writing to sound smart instead of writing to be understood — two different goals that pull the sentence apart.

4the tax

The mechanism: when you write to impress, you reach for the rare word, the passive voice, the hedge — each one adds a decoding cost the reader pays silently, sentence by sentence.

5the fix

The fix this tradition pushes hardest: write the plainest true sentence first, then only add complexity if it earns its keep — clarity is a discipline, not a lack of sophistication.

6the number

The strongest number these writers cite from research on comprehension: readers correctly recall roughly 40 to 60 percent less from dense academic prose than from the same idea in plain sentences.