10/08/2025
Can you tell a story in just six words?
Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was at lunch with several other writers and bet them he could not only do it, but move its readers to tears.
Of course, the other writers balked. Hemingway told each of them to put ten dollars in the middle of the table.
If he was wrong, he said, he’d match it. If he was right, he would keep the entire pot. He quickly wrote six words on a napkin and passed it around.
It said: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
He won the bet.
That's the power of clarity, which hacks away at distractions until all that's left is a core idea that either stands on its own or doesn't.
