"I’ve also taken to toning down any rhetorical flourishes that could be interpreted uncharitably in a way that annoys some people. The result: boring writing stripped of a lot of my own personal style"
I read this as "I've become a better writer". 99.99% of the time, what you consider your unique, personal style is just bad writing.
I have to agree with the other commenters that what this OP thinks of as "defensive" writing is sometimes just better, more nuanced writing.
For me, it just boils down to a tradeoff. Oh, you want instant access and the ability to influence the billions of people who are on the Internet, and to do it for free? Then don't expect the insulation you get when your writing was previously restricted to a published journal or local newspaper column.
Tangentially related: In the academic world, people have been abuzz about Steven Salatia, a professor who was nearly in the door as a tenured professor at University of Illinois until the board of trustees, made aware of his stream of inflammatory tweets about Israel and Palestine, nixed the offer, leaving Salatia without a job:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/10/steven-salait...
Besides espousing the value of academic freedom, Salatia's defense has been: If you had only read my entire tweet stream, you would've seen that I don't hate Israel, and that my seemingly violent sentiments were just rhetorical flourishes when viewed in context.
Sure, I see his argument and I empathize with him. But he's being naive and Pollyanish about communication. The world doesn't have time to explore your mind-palace...each of us are already preoccupied with our own lives and thoughts. If you wanted to make catchy soundbites over a complicated issue so that you could catch our attention amidst the global debate, well, the other side of catchy soundbites is that sometimes they catch you.
Frankly, I don't think the world loses much if, when it comes to complex nuanced issues, we put down the Twitter client and put our thoughts in a medium (no pun intended with Medium) intended for expansive discussion. Does it slow you down? Sure. And that's a good thing.
This tendency toward defensive communication is a problem for me both online and offline. Although to be honest, I see the exact opposite extreme as a problem as well: hustler-type startup people tend to adopt an "offensive" hyperbolic communication style that can be just as disruptive.
Over the years I have come to appreciate pg's essays as an example of the happy medium: he doesn't pull punches, but he doesn't generalize to the point of hyperbole either, and I find his writing style to be more effective because of this balance.
I go back and forth with prefixing my own blog posts - especially the softer ones, like this one on preserving technical knowledge http://thomasleecopeland.com/2014/10/01/preserving-technical... - with disclaimers like "I think" and "from what I've seen", and so forth. Saying "I think" in a blog post that I wrote feels redundant; of course I think this otherwise I wouldn't have written it. But more frequently it's an accurate reflection of how I feel about a topic. In the post above, I'm not making a dogmatic statement that "diagrams are bad", but I'm saying that face to face interviews have been more effective for me.
I don't buy this. First, instead of defensive writers, I see people--though I'm not talking about this author--whining that their unclear writing is being "misinterpreted" when it turns out they've implied something dumb.
Second, while I appreciate stylish and direct writing, I'll take bloated but well reasoned writing if I have to. The world is full of writers who "have no ideas, and the ability to express them", but that doesn't help us. Precision and careful thought often push us towards difficult and ugly writing.
Edit: the worst kind of hedge is the one that makes your opinion harder to understand. I'm guilty of adding that pointless "almost" and I've been struggling to overcome that habit for a long time.
There are a couple related issues at hand. I agree that hedging and weasel phrases are an issue. It's too easy to write content-free noise. The classic example in my mind is someone trying to sound "deep" who makes a statement like "Sometimes X..." without saying anything about how to identify such times out what to do about them. However, when this is a problem, it's one of not enough precision, not too much. The goal is to try to write a statement that fits all possible evidence, and so can't be proven wrong, ignoring that it's useless for the same reason.
Defensive writing, on the other hand, is generally a good thing. Precision and careful logic are essential in writing. We don't have the benefit of physical emotional cues. Common sense isn't common, and even if it was there are so many perspectives on the web that you at least need to be thinking about the potential for misunderstanding. You need to try to head off trivial or otherwise unproductive avenues of debate. These are all responsibilities of conscientious communicators. And if you find yourself using a lot of vague language, it's probably better not to say anything. Any other policy is willfully contributing to the proliferation of BS on the web.
Reality is messy so sometimes you have to use imprecise language to describe it. In that case, it may be helpful to try to precisely specify how imprecise you mean to be, or use some other more specific phrase than "sometimes X" or "sort of Y". If it needs to be said, you can usually find a way to add more information.
But I wish we’d reflect honestly on whether this level of precision is really warranted in all cases and whether such precision always needs to be completely nailed down up front. Maybe we could all try to exercise a little “ordinary charity” and have a simple conversation sometimes.
For some subjects, the precision is absolutely warranted. Good communication requires people to be on the same page. One of the issues with the Internet is that you can have an extremely diverse audience, and this creates communication challenges that you don't have (or rarely will have) in meatspace. One of the things I have been working on is audience development and how to get my message to the people ready to hear it or who have the background or whatever. This is a challenging thing to do online. Figuring out a means to segment out your audience will help reintroduce the ability to "just have a conversation."
Sadly, I don’t have any concrete proposals and am unsure what to do about all this, but… er, I welcome your comments.
Aside from segmenting out your audience and engaging in audience development/education, which is kind of a different thing, you can model respectful communication and social formality. Social formality is useful in situations where we know little about another person. Given the high diversity you run into online, this is one of the antidotes to the problem.
(Though, really, I am torn about posting this comment for other reasons, one of them being that I often feel like I give away my best ideas and can't figure out how to get money out of what I do. SIGH. Money is a chronic source of stress in my life. :-/ )
Comments on the internet are the worst. The majority of comments on technical posts are internet dingleberries who are trying to prove they are smarter than the OP. The more advanced the post the more people come out of the woodwork.
For these reasons my goal for blog posts is high views, low comments. It means you talked about an interesting topic and covered it so thoroughly there was nothing left to be said on the matter.
Writing serves many purposes. Often we read to be entertained. Other times we wish to be informed. Personal flair is fine and good when we are writing to entertain, but precision and honesty are even better when we write to inform.
One significant thing the internet has done is to allow scientists and engineers to communicate directly with general audiences without journalists, etc. acting as mediators. Where a journalist might make a false claim because it feels stronger or more compelling, a scientist or engineer will usually add honest qualifications so as not to deceive. Perhaps it is from this new, direct dialogue with non-journalists that the general public has learned to write in this style.
Another possible source of this style is politics. The U.S. is far from the only country where partisan politics have taken root. Parties opposed to one another often have very similar platforms and policies because they know very well what appeals to the majority. With few major differences in policy to distinguish themselves from their opponents, they must instead rely on personality. With that comes the practice of pouncing on an opponents tiniest slip of the tongue (or pen) to chip away at their credibility. Thus, politicians must be as careful as scientists to leave no room for deliberate misinterpretation of their words. We no doubt emulate the defensive communication style of our leaders to at least some degree.
However defensive writing has slipped into the mainstream, it combines with the anonymity of the internet to allow anyone to appear credible beyond their qualifications, provided they are careful. The spirit of scientific peer review, the example of our leaders' incessant jockeying for credibility, and awareness of the fallibility of writers have all encouraged the general public to read with a skeptical eye. The written word is no longer above suspicion. If something we read contains even just one error, can we trust the rest of it? People don't just write defensively now, they read defensively too, and for good reason!
Content now rules over style in most spheres of writing. I find myself nitpicking even fiction these days. It sometimes takes conscious effort to suspend disbelief and simply enjoy a good story in spite of the writer's inability to simulate reality without error. Perhaps we have lost something. However, we have also gained much. Writers are becoming more accountable to the truth and readers are less likely to be duped by lies than ever. Perhaps all that is missing is for honest mistakes to become more acceptable so that writers may be free to take worthy risks without paralyzing fear.
I think being aware and conscious of what you write isn't necessarily a bad thing.
More ever, internet-writing encourages short, clear and concise sentences and argument points which is a very useful and necessary skill in any social context.
Damn internet! Always cramping my style!
Blog posts are inherently short-form writing, optimized for getting to the top of Reddit. You have to make bold claims to attract readers, and avoid detailed arguments so they don't fall asleep. See Joel Spolsky's description of the Internet Pundit style of writing here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/backIssues-2010-03.html
If you want your writing to have value beyond the popularity game, and contribute to the state of the art somehow, I think careful reasoning is indispensable for that.
What we see here is the death of broadcast communication.
Print, Radio and Television are granted a monopoly of audience attention. (If you can pay the gatekeepers.)
Now the loudest voices face a real crowd, people who will return the volley.
Does this hold us to a higher standard? Is the end of one-way broadcast the real death of journalism as we know it? I hope so.
"Find the insight, not the error."
Unfortunately, people on the internet seem to do the opposite.
For a given domain, some people want to learn new things, while others just want to defend their current level of knowledge. Ultimately where a comment adds value depends on whether it is motivated by the former or the latter.
A more in depth analysis is really needed. What the author does not adequately address is the origin of these behaviors. Writing online is public and global. Holding an unpopular view or offending the wrong group can cost a job or end a career.
It's not just comments, it's also the permanent nature of the internet that will keep haunting your Google results for years if you don't choose your words carefully.
Often times you can judge the sophistication of an author by the aspects they do and do not take for granted.
...and sometimes you have to call critics the pedantic nitwits that they are.
That font is awful...
I see it every day.
For many people communication in online forums is an ego sport. They are here to snipe and crush. If they can interpret your words in a way that makes you look foolish, then that is the interpretation that they will speak to. If they can find a literal inconsistency, then they will take the literal approach. If you speak in contradiction of the conventional view then they will stand atop castle conventionality and pour flaming oil on your head, laughing. If all else fails they will point out grammatic errors.
I see people reacting to this environment. They are hesitant to let their strange opinions dangle free. It definitely inhibits free communication.
I have faith that we will, as a society, pass through this fire and emerge educated. We will all learn to just say "fuck it" and let our special sauce flow.