Ho Chi Minh: Ho Chi Minh’s Quote of the Day: “Write in such a way that young and old, men and women can understand you” and why simple words have the power to change the world
In 1962, a team of structural engineers working on a new international terminal at a U.S. airport encountered a serious problem. Signs directing passengers to baggage claim, exits and customs are filled with complicated official language. Tourists get lost, children are separated from their parents, and elderly tourists struggle to understand technical jargon. The solution comes when graphic designers eliminate unnecessary complexity, replacing lengthy written instructions with simple universal symbols and clear language. Almost immediately, the confusion disappeared.When information is removed from complex layers, it becomes available to everyone. This is the basic idea behind important rules of public communication: “Write so that your content can be easily understood by young and old, men and women, and even children.”This information challenges the belief that intelligence is expressed through complex language. Instead, it presents a state of complete clarity Practical responsibilities and moral obligations. When communication is simple and direct, it can connect people across generations and remove barriers caused by education level or social background. This idea remains powerful because it satisfies a basic human need: the ability to understand the rules, stories, and ideas that shape our lives without requiring higher education to decode them.
Uncle He’s revolutionary style
The author of this directive was Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary leader and president who guided Vietnam’s decades-long anti-colonial struggle. He faced major challenges in the 1940s and 1950s in leading the rebellion against French rule and later establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. More than 90% of Vietnam’s population is illiterate, leaving them disconnected from announcements, education and political slogans.Ho Chi Minh gave this writing advice to journalists, officials and speechwriters at media conferences in Hanoi, especially at the Second Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association in 1962.He understood that the movement would fail if the government communicated using the complex, classical Chinese-style script traditionally used by the educated elite. His audience included farmers working in the rice fields, weary soldiers, grandmothers caring for their families in the countryside, and children delivering messages via clandestine routes. To unite these disparate groups, he wanted government publications to avoid complex political theory and use simple language. He himself followed this principle and wrote short articles in newspapers under different names Cuu Quoc (Save the Nation)uses everyday examples from agriculture and everyday life to explain complex topics such as economics and military strategy.
the power of clarity
The philosophy behind this approach is related to ideas from classical communication and political thought. It refuses to use complex words to hide weak arguments, a practice criticized by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates when he debated sophists. Socrates believed that true knowledge should be clear enough to be questioned by ordinary people.Centuries later, the British writer george orwell A similar argument was made in his famous 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language”. Orwell explained that political chaos depends on exaggerated language that can make false ideas appear real and empty promises sound like serious plans.When leaders and institutions simply communicate, they fulfill some form of public responsibility. Complex writing may hide errors, corruption, or lack of preparation. Clear communication can bridge these cracks. It forces the author to really understand the subject, since explaining a complex idea in a way that a child can understand requires a complete knowledge of the subject. It shifts the responsibility of understanding from the reader to the person who created the information.
Communication in the big events of 2026
This principle of making information easily accessible has become extremely important for modern organizations. In a world filled with short videos, instant notifications and endless online content, people’s attention spans are limited. Whether in business, public health or technology, organizations that communicate clearly build trust.The rapid release of public safety information on regional power upgrades during the winter is a clear example. Cities that issue technical bulletins filled with details about their power systems and distribution face frustration and reduced cooperation from residents. In contrast, communities that shared simple information explaining exactly which areas would be without power, how long they would last and how to protect food supplies encountered fewer problems.The same idea can be seen in global business. When technology companies create user interfaces and instruction manuals, the goal is simple and easy-to-use design, similar to the approach used by companies like Nintendo and IKEA. Their instructions rely on pictures, clear steps, and simple text, allowing an eight-year-old child or an eighty-year-old grandparent to figure out how to use the product without the need for customer support.In education, the most successful teaching methods often refuse to memorize complex textbook language and instead use methods such as the Feynman Technique, named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. He believes that if you can’t explain something to a first-year college student, then you probably don’t fully understand it. Teachers capitalize on this idea by asking students to explain science topics in simple language, forcing them to go beyond memorized terms and show real understanding.In 1947, reviewing an early draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the French philosopher Jacques Maritain noted that the document only had real power when it was read aloud in village squares and understood by workers returning from the fields. The power of a message is measured not by how complex it sounds, but by how deeply it affects ordinary people.
