Atomize Your Texts

Learn to shave down your texts to the atomic level. Any character that can be taken out of your text without changing its meaning or without making you look stupid should be plucked out. Not all your texts should be atomized, but it’s the best way to express your thoughts in the least reactive way. Atomize your texts when setting up logistics, exchanging information, or punishing bad behavior.

When atomizing your texts, consider what can be inferred from context. Your ultimate goal is to communicate a thought, feeling or piece of information. Keep reducing down the character count as long as your goal continues to be fulfilled.

As an exercise, try to communicating the following thoughts by using atomic level texts:

A: Don’t worry about our bar options, there should be a large number of bars open for us to choose from tonight
B: It’s k, lot of bars gonna b open

A: Should we grab food before we go to the concert?
B: Eat before concert?

A: Hey! Are you still available to meet tonight?
B: Hey, up for tonight?

A: I have some friends coming down from Los Angeles and I’m going to party with them tonight
B: Gonna party with LA friends tonight

A: The meeting time you just proposed works out perfectly for me
B: Perf

A: Why did you leave so early last night?
B: Left early?

A: Have you ever been to that new club on University ave?
B: Been to new uni ave club?

A: When are you coming to town tomorrow?
B: When in town tomorrow?

A: I don’t understand why you just said that
B: Y

A: I don’t like mexican food, I think we should go somewhere else for dinner
B: Not into mex, somewhere else

Clearly, atomizing leads to many abbreviations, misspellings and poor grammar, but they will work to your advantage. There’s a range of erroneous writing that’s considered acceptable in mobile texting that will make you appear lazy as opposed to illiterate. Lazy texting is high status because it’s unreactive. A higher status guy wouldn’t bother mustering the energy and focus it takes to type an unnecessary character with fingerpoint accuracy. Bewarned, poor quality writing is less excusable the easier your texting utensil is to use.