TL;DR - October 23, 2026

Where Did Our Patience Go?

In many of the email newsletters I receive, immediately after the title or subtitle, I keep seeing a section entitled, “TL;DR”, which I learned is an acronym for “Too Long; Didn’t Read”.  The use of this acronym/reference is now commonplace in online journalism, and intuitively you can understand why.  But, sometimes this is used by readers as a minor insult, to say the article/newsletter seems too long and they couldn’t be bothered to read the entire writing. More productively, TL;DR serves as a summary of the full article to follow, it’s often deliberately placed there at the beginning of the newsletter or article, by the author.  

Regardless of how it’s used, the TL;DR era is upon us because we don’t have the patience to read long-form content anymore.  Where did our patience go?  It’s been annihilated by all the social media content we consume on our mobile devices.  We hit an icon on our phones and have instant access to Tik-Tok videos, Instagram reels, Facebook stories, or video clips posted in our X/Twitter feeds, and right away we’re subjected to entertaining video content and messaging, without having to read anything.  We’re now going on several years of consuming content this way, which has affected our attention spans.  While the Smartphone was introduced to consumers in 2007, it was in 2010 that Apple introduced the App Store, and it was between 2015 and 2020 that all of the video-showing apps mentioned above were released.  Our patience for reading long-form writing has been eroded over the past six to eleven years.   

When/Why Is TL;DR Actually Useful?

There are a few reasons, and they're mostly tied to how people actually read written content online now. 

Most readers skim first, because they are now used to getting the gist of a message instantly through the video content described above.   We treat our attention as a scarce resource. Using TL;DR up front respects that by giving the skimmers the key points instead of losing their attention  entirely.  For a writer, this is better than a bounce; with a TL;DR you’ll hold the eyeballs longer.  

It works like an abstract. Newspapers put the key facts in the first paragraph and academic papers open with an abstract for the same reason: it tells the reader what the piece argues for and lets them decide if the full version is worth their time.

Counterintuitively, using a TL;DR upfront often gets people to read the whole thing. Giving away the conclusion creates curiosity about the supporting evidence;  "Okay, how did they get there?",  and the summary acts as a roadmap, so the details land better when the reader knows where the argument is heading.  I find myself doing this a lot now, when I read online written content.

It's the part of the writing that travels. The TL;DR section is what gets quoted and shared. In email newsletters it doubles as the inbox preview.

It signals confidence. A writer who presents the conclusion at the end is asking for your time, on faith. A writer who states that up front is saying: this is my argument and it can survive you knowing the ending.

Am I Losing My Patience For Full-Length Books?

I’m an avid reader, with usually two books on the go at any given time. And, even if a book presented itself as a heavy, slow read, I would take pride in finishing that book. It used to be that I didn't exhibit TL;DR when reading full-length books. 

However, I recently started seeing advice online that readers should abandon a book if they’re taking too long to get through it.  I didn’t see any numeric quantification for “too long to read”; it was just advice to not waste time on writing that wasn't connecting with you and to use that time on more enjoyable reading.  Up until recently, I had not been in agreement with that advice, and was grinding out finishing any book I had started.  Call it macho pride, or whatever.  However, I have now found myself abandoning the odd book in mid-read; I’ve come around to the notion that my time is precious and shouldn't be wasted on written content that I'm struggling to get through.  

This change in my own behaviour got me wondering if I was guilty of exhibiting impatience, and if I was guilty of a diminished attention span due to my own social media use.  I concluded that the answer was NO, as I am currently reading Michael Lewis’ latest book, “Blockers”, and “How To AI” by Christopher Mims.  Both of these books are fantastic reads that I’m getting through with enjoyment and expediency.  

Although, I'll admit I'm not sure I have the patience today for the slower-building books I loved earlier in my life, pre-social media.  

The Final Word

I was amused at first, then mildly annoyed, that anything longer than a five-minute read was being offered with a TL;DR upfront. But, I've come around; I’ve realized that the TL;DR section tells me what the writing is about and gives me the confidence to invest my time in it.   A good TL;DR will get me to stay on the writing longer and read it completely.  

A TL;DR is really not a new concept.  Research papers come with abstracts; corporate reports come with executive summaries.  Full-length books come with a well-written prologue.   These are different forms of the same thing.  A good writer should feel comfortable presenting their conclusions upfront and confident that those conclusions will entice the reader to invest time and understand how the writer came to those conclusions.   

Thanks for reading!

Do You Only Read Articles/Newsletters that Offer a TL;DR upfront? 

Do You Find Your Patience For Long-Form Writing Has Diminished? 

Do You Read Full-Length Books? 

Should I Add A TL;DR Section To My Substack Articles?