Serious Nonfiction Need Not Be Difficult

For years, I found many books on psychology and related subjects harder to approach than they needed to be. There seemed to be an assumption that if a book dealt with psychology, philosophy, causality, judgement, success or failure, it had to sound academic, contain endless references and demand considerable effort from the reader.

There is nothing wrong with academic writing when that is what the subject requires, but serious ideas do not have to be expressed in difficult language. A book can examine complicated questions without making the reader struggle through terminology that adds little to the argument.

Clear writing does not make an idea less serious. Nor does a shorter book necessarily have less to say. Sometimes saying something plainly requires more thought than surrounding it with language that makes it appear more complicated.

That was important to me when writing The Luck Illusion. The book deals with luck, causality, success, failure and the many influences that can shape what happens to people, but I did not want the reader to need a background in psychology or philosophy before being able to think about those subjects.

At the centre of the book is a fairly simple question: what do we leave out when we describe someone as lucky or unlucky?

There is a great deal behind that question, but I saw no reason to make the language difficult simply because the subject can be complicated. My intention was to make the argument clear enough for the reader to consider it, question it and perhaps apply some of it to experiences from their own life.

I have never believed that serious nonfiction should exist mainly to demonstrate how much the writer knows. Knowledge matters, but communicating it matters just as much. If an idea can be explained clearly without losing its meaning, I would rather explain it clearly.

There can sometimes be a reluctance to do this, as though straightforward writing somehow lowers the standing of serious nonfiction. I think the opposite. Psychology, philosophy and reasoning concern ordinary people because they deal with the way ordinary people think, judge, choose and live.

They should not become a closed form of communication understood only by those already familiar with the language.

A serious idea can still be a clear one.