Here’s why.
If your entire thought stream can be boiled down to a sentence or two, why don’t you make like Derek Sivers, or Seth Godin, and just write a sentence or two? Save us all the trouble, lighten up some server loads, and relieve Mother Earth the burden of cost to support the rest of the junk?
Or be like Mr. Money Mustache, or Colin, who correctly place their short thoughts where they belong: on Twitter. And save their best essays for their blogs. If I came for a Tex Mex smorgasbord and margarita fest, why are you handing me a Fresco bean burrito and pushing me out the door?
If your entire thought stream can’t be boiled down to a line or two, then I ask this: why are you directing the intelligent human being, who is engaged in reading your writing, straight to the cliff notes section? What presumptions did you make about them? And about your own content?
If those presumptions are true, do we even need to be here right now?
Most importantly: what human behaviors are you encouraging, by this choice?
Are you shooting for lowest common denominator? Or the highest caliber minds?
#goingmeta I would guess it’s a semiotic tribalism key for techie types: used subconsciously by the coders, no-coders, and general geeks.
#goingki On the other hand, it is rather delightful to encounter the semi-colon. Which is a rare species these days in the wilderness of the current internet.
Perhaps that alone explains the popularity of TL;DR!
That is all.
*Thoughts do not apply to technical reviews, which is the only place I believe TL;DR belongs.
###