TLDR’s tldr

“Can you summarise this, please?” sounds like a fair request until you realise that written boldly on the top of the page is a TLDR summary.

TLDR or TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) is the jovial cousin of the infamous ‘nut graf’. It shows readers the core of the message. Sometimes, it’s the call to action. Other times, it’s the punch-line you want them to take away.

TLDR’s tldr requests are like the one above. Where we want the summary of a summary. We want the 15-character version of a tweet - when tweets had a 280-character limit.

The challenge with TLDR’s tldr starts when we form opinions, make worthwhile decisions, or give feedback based on the summarised version of a summary. Fortunately, we have tools to make this happen, fast.

A colleague uses an online tool to summarise a document and sends it to your assistant. They receive it and process it with another tool to summarise that. Without reading their summary, you opt for the TLDR’s tldr version, summarising with yet another tool.

The tools aren’t the issue. It’s the care and attention we’ve decided to process information with.

It’s fine to interpret a TLDR’s tldr request as “I don’t care enough to read this.” And calibrate the feedback you get with that in mind.[1]

[1] I sometimes use TLDR. I fear a situation where the average attention span requires a summary for TLDR.