Comment by denton-scratch
2 years ago
> Did anyone actually read this whole thing?
Yup. I'm not a cryptographer, so I didn't understand most of the detail. I realized it ws DJB after a couple of paragraphs.
> the relevant details and "executive summary" if you will should be in the first couple paragraphs
It wasn't written for "executives".
> It wasn't written for "executives".
When writing about real-world topics (especially where the goal is to educate or change opinions), it's usually a good idea to summarize the overall piece at the beginning, regardless of the intended audience. If the piece is broken up into chapters, sections, etc., it often helps to open each of those with a summary as well.
Like a lot of technical people, my default writing style tends to be a linear/journal-entry structure that tells a story more or less in the order it occurred. Over time I've learned that that type of structure only really works if someone is already interested in the material. Otherwise, they're likely to see a wall of text and move on.
Summarizing the overall piece as well as sections lets the reader immediately figure out if what they're reading is relevant to them, what the author's goals are, and if there are parts they can skip over because they're already familiar with those topics.