Learn your reader's code words

In 1996 the economist W. Brian Arthur published "Increasing Returns and the New World of Business" in the Harvard Business Review, and it is still cited thirty years on. He wrote it over four days with his friend Cormac McCarthy — yes, that Cormac McCarthy — one of the most ruthless prose editors alive. The obvious lesson is that McCarthy cut the jargon. The real lesson is in the words they chose to keep.

How it works

Arthur could have written "Early market entry produces compounding benefits." True, and dead on arrival. Instead: "It pays to hit the market first. It pays." To executives and investors — people who wake up thinking about returns — "it pays" is a code word, a secret handshake that says this is about your world. The same article leans on strategy, competitive advantage, market lock-in: not the most technical terms, but the ones that resonate with that reader in that context. Value is in the eye of the reader, so the job is to learn the words that light up on their dashboard and use them on purpose.

Why it matters

The language that makes a startup founder sit up is not the language that makes a Fortune 500 executive lean in, even when the point is identical. That is why "writing for everyone" lands with no one — a code word aimed at all readers is a code word for none. Getting the reader's vocabulary right sends a signal of membership that plain clarity can't: it tells them you know their world and you're one of them, and that trust is often what carries a good idea from obscurity into a classic.

Jargon is a membership card

The flip side of code words is jargon, and "just dumb it down" is only half right. Language isn't only information; it's social. Say "random" to a machine-learning crowd who say "stochastic" and you've signalled you don't sit at their table — "stochastic" isn't a puffed-up fifty-dollar word, it's a membership card, a mark of in-group status. Skilled writers switch registers, speaking to a specialist one moment and a general reader the next, so jargon aimed at the right audience isn't bad writing; it just means you weren't the target. The caveat (Feynman was right too): obscurity can also hide empty thinking. The test isn't "is this plain?" but "does the writer know who they're speaking to, and is this deliberate?"

No universal rules, only readers

The same social fact retires a whole category of school advice: don't start with "but," never split an infinitive, never end on a preposition. These are sold as universal laws, but there are no universal writing rules because there are no universal readers. What a reader actually checks is whether your language matches the register of their community — so the skill is anthropological: study the patterns your target readers use, and adapt to fit. Treat grammar not as a straitjacket of rules but as a set of tools you pick up to meet a specific reader. (It's why this section is called Writing Tools, not writing rules.)

Try it

1. List the words your specific reader uses about your subject — the ones that carry status, stakes, or belonging in their world.
2. Where you've reached for a neutral, general term, swap in the one that resonates for this reader ("it pays," not "produces compounding benefits").
3. Don't stop at jargon; the code word is often a plain phrase loaded with the reader's values. Choose the version that says "I know your world."

Common pitfalls

Faking the handshake — sprinkling in a community's vocabulary you don't actually understand, which insiders spot instantly and trust you less for. And don't confuse code words with the universal attention-words every reader shares: but, however, although signal contrast for anyone; code words mark a particular tribe.

Code words like this are a secret handshake with your reader — they tell them you understand them and you speak their language.

WILLIAM · THE TOP 1% THINK ON PAPER · 2026

The exact right word for your reader beats the exact right word in general.

Drawn from

• William, The Top 1% Think on Paper. Here's How to Do It (Writer Science, 2026).
• W. Brian Arthur, "Increasing Returns and the New World of Business," Harvard Business Review (1996).
• William, Writing Advice I've Changed My Mind About (Writer Science, 2026) — jargon as a membership card, and register-switching.
• William, How Modern Schools Make Terrible Writers (Deliberately) (Writer Science, 2026) — no universal rules because no universal readers; register.
• Related: Know your reader, not just your audience, Write for the venue and its reader.