A couple of days ago I was going through some tutorials and guides on various software topics and got frustrated because I could not figure something out. But it was not that mere act that annoyed me, it was due to the way the instructions were stated: JUST need to change the configuration of your server.

You know, you JUST need to make this; you JUST need to modify that; the server will OBVIOUSLY crash.

Not because you find something obvious or simple means that everyone else will. Words like just, obviously and simply are generally discouraging- specially for beginners that are starting to piece different things together.

Moreover, I don't think those words add any value to your writing. Does it make your point clearer if you state that it should be obvious? No. On the contrary, your reader might feel like a fool because he/she didn't find it obvious at all.

While thinking about this I decided to do a little page where you can paste your text and it will highlight words like obvious, simply, just, etc. I decided to go with React/Redux, some deep learning algorithms and everything running serverless. Just kidding, it's an static website with inline CSS and JavaScript that uses a Regex 🙃 Check it out here!

In my opinion, we should try to avoid those words as much as we can to stop discouraging others and to add more value to our ideas. Also, you use fewer words.

Thanks for reading me! ❤️