Respect the Flow (or How to Use Transitions)
Flow is hard to achieve without effort. Flow is not ‘wasting time.’
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Look up any website that sells posters of inspirational quotes and you will see that many have background pictures of flowing water. Humans naturally crave flow. Whether it’s because as some scholars have claimed that we all want to return to the sea, or we’ve been programmed to think of water as soothing, images of flowing water do seem soothing.
Flowing communication can also be soothing and satisfying, as long as it follows some rules. Mere gushing doesn’t flow; it overwhelms and makes the reader recoil. A huge burst of words, usually without paragraphing or punctuation, repels.
Flow is gentle ...
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