Anyone else experiencing the inability of people to make clear, concise statements? It’s epidemic at work. I’ve started telling people they have 30 seconds to get the point across. Most fail.

Outside of the female of the species (it's genetic) and YouTube (it's annoying) I haven't noticed it.

In writing? Dear God, it's an epidemic.

In a world full of TLAs, one might find actual words refreshing.

Is it an age thing,?

I know an 86 y.o. lady that speaks in the most vague sentences , it's frustrating.

quote:

Anyone else experiencing the inability of people to make clear, concise statements?

No.

I find people under 30 or so who were raised on texting & tweeting are generally excellent at being concise. Clear on the other hand... not so much.

Those I find who are prone to rambling are generally older, 70+.

Women tend to be chatty, which is different than rambling.

Sometimes it's loneliness or a lack of social skills. They ramble because they want to engage with another person, and because they don't have anyone else to talk to.

Sometimes it's simply being scatterbrained, or wired differently so that the flow and connections make sense in their own mind but sounds like rambling to some others (which is where many women seem to fall)

Sometimes it's just being deeply insecure, timid, or anxious, and hoping that by beating around the bush and lobbing a softball, their point or request won't be seen as rude, or pushy, or needy, or offensive, or whatever.

Sometimes it's purely being an arrogant blowhard who likes to hear themselves speak, and believe that by bloviating and taking up all the oxygen in the room people will respect them and think that they're brilliant.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK, May 23, 2025 07:59 PM

At work, all day everyday. So many “fake it until you make it” people that have no business with the role/job. Many days it’s just a nightmare. It is a very widespread problem.

Wait, Wait, Wait..........This is a YES or NO question, that is all I need from you.

"We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones."
-- Abe Simpson

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
Anyone else experiencing the inability of people to make clear, concise statements? It’s epidemic at work. I’ve started telling people they have 30 seconds to get the point across. Most fail.

TLDR

The Marine Corps helps with this. In addition to being concise,they are fifteen minutes early and well groomed. You can teach people to be concise.

For some older people it is a sign of dementia, and a general inability to organize one's thoughts.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Outside of the female of the species (it's genetic) and YouTube (it's annoying) I haven't noticed it.

In writing? Dear God, it's an epidemic.

Don’t lump all females in on this. I tend to be very terse and have to really watch myself in emails so as not to come across as curt.

I distinctly recall my grandmother prattling on for nearly five minutes to convey that she needed me to buy a single item from the grocery store.

This drives me nuts- a multi-paragraph conversation (typically one-way) that could have been summarized in 2-3 sentences. It's like "meeting that should've been an email" in person.

People like that make my ass twitch.

Omg. I complain about this to my co-worker every day.

quote:

Originally posted by MelissaDallas:

Don’t lump all females in on this. I tend to be very terse and have to really watch myself in emails so as not to come across as curt.

Granted.

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Originally posted by iron chef:
Those I find who are prone to rambling are generally older, 70+.

They are just happy to, and taking advantage of, having someone to talk to.

There was a time when the news was delivered on paper. One paid for the paper prior to reading so one could start articles with a paragraph the contained relevant content.

Internet "journalists" need to capture views so they start articles with 5 paragraphs of barely relevant information before anything of substance.

Monkey see, Monkey do.

And that's general writing, business writing requires more thought to form concise sentences and paragraphs. One of my most treasured
compliments came from a tough boss: "Your writing is terse, and that's a good thing." Woodrow Wilson said it best: "How long does it take you to prepare one of your speeches?” asked a friend of President Wilson. “That depends on the length of the speech,” answered the President. “If it is a 10-minute speech, it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half hour speech, it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to, it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.” Internet writing provides all the time in the world.

Regarding the tendency of older people to be verbose, some of it may be due to cognitive decline and the inability to express themselves clearly, and some may be a desire for the companionship they no longer have because they’re no longer working and have lost friends and acquaintances.

But I’ll also point out that sometimes it’s because their life experiences and therefore their education about many topics mean that there is a lot they can say about those topics. Despite my own efforts to not bore people, I can easily go on and on about certain subjects. Fifty years ago if the subject of riflescopes had come up, I wouldn’t have had much more to say than that I could see a target when looking through the one I had and it wasn’t too expensive. Today, however ….

Somewhat ironically, though, we often see comments that an older military veteran “Never talked about that.” Although a reluctance to resurrect painful memories is one common reason, the other, and probably more common one is that they realize that simply no one cares about their stories and have learned to just shut up.