“Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection;”

— Jennifer Egan , A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Jennifer Egan 34

Novelist, short story writer 1962

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Paraphrased as "Precise language is not the problem. Clear language is the problem."
Context: The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language. The desire is to have the idea clearly communicated to the other person. It is only necessary to be precise when there is some doubt as to the meaning of a phrase, and then the precision should be put in the place where the doubt exists. It is really quite impossible to say anything with absolute precision, unless that thing is so abstracted from the real world as to not represent any real thing.Pure mathematics is just such an abstraction from the real world, and pure mathematics does have a special precise language for dealing with its own special and technical subjects. But this precise language is not precise in any sense if you deal with real objects of the world, and it is only pedantic and quite confusing to use it unless there are some special subtleties which have to be carefully distinguished.

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Attributed

“Advice is cheap you can take it from me.
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Your role was protective, your soul was too defective.
Some people just don't have a heart to be broken.”

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“It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.”

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“Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you go, and fix it along the way…”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

“Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection;”

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