timeless

In 1905, Sir T. Clifford Allbutt penned the following sentence in his still relevant text, Notes on the Composition of Scientific Papers:

"At present few people have time to wade through pages and pages of discursive and ill explained writings on the off chance that they may ultimately light on an interesting result."

There's a couple of reasons why I like this sentence. Nothing has changed in the 104 years since Allbutt made the claim. He was writing within an argument for concision, clarity, and simplicity from scientists and authors of scientific (specifically, medical) articles. Today, scientific journals are still just as laden with "pages of discursive and ill explained writings."

Similarly unchanged is the time factor. As both author and reader find themselves with less time today, we find ourselves bleeting, blogging, twittering, and tweeting - micro-babbling about nothing of any real import. If he were around today, Allbutt would shudder at his odds for ultimately lighting on an interesting result within most scholarly journals, discussions, forums, and outlets - print or otherwise.

Round and round.