Say the thing

A breath in, breath out takes 3 seconds. Reading about it costs 5 minutes. I don't read it. Not because it has nothing to say. The story is tiny, the commentary is endless. Every move, every micro-decision is wrapped in a moral framework, ethical justification, and ideological positioning. "I switched jobs" becomes a manifesto. "I bought sneakers" gets a paragraph on consumer guilt. You don't owe the reader that. Say the thing. Let the reader use their own intelligence. Short isn't lazy. It's honest. The rest is performance.