Patrick's Pitfalls - Vague Wording

What Are Patrick's Pitfalls?

I have always been a fan of the saying, "Smart people learn from their mistakes. Wise people learn from the mistakes of others." In that context, I offer you Patrick's Pitfalls: wisdom painfully earned and mistakes carelessly made, so that you don't waste your time doing the same.

As someone who likes to try their hand at everything, and who insists on doing it the wrong way first so that he can learn where the edges lie, I have much wisdom to share.

Patrick's Pitfalls is my attempt at bringing you brief, useful snippets of wisdom to make your life easier.

Today's Pitfall: Vague Wording.

"Welcome to my class on tensor analysis. It is about tensors, etc. Hope that helps." We have all done something like this. If you are looking at this page, that is because you are an intelligent person. You are no doubt talented in your domain. When you think about that niche thing within your domain, you mentally conjure its shape so easily that you sometimes forget how hard it was for you to get where you are. How clear, meticulous, and deliberate you had to be while you were learning.

That is not a knock. It is a compliment.

You have been working at your craft for so long that you have forgotten the pain that a past version of you struggled mightily with, and maybe never thought you'd overcome.

If you're a Dragon Ball fan, that's like what happened with Raditz.

If you're not, it's like that kid who used to tease you in elementary school who you haven't seen or heard from in decades.

That's what you've done with your craft. You should be proud. That said, it is contributing to your vaguely worded ads and posts. And that is limiting your traffic.

Why Is Vague Wording Bad?

An excellent question. Vague wording crushes ad traffic and followthrough in a number of ways.

Web Traffic Limiter: Algorithmic Suppression

It is no secret that in 2026, AI and algorithms are dominating the internet. In order to see our traffic soar, we have to appease the digital deities of these ever-churning seas.

We've got to make the algorithm happy.

How do we keep AI happy?

• Clear Wording - AI and the algorithm like it when we are clear with our words. Clear wording helps filtration systems - digital and biological - to efficiently sift through our written thought and emerge with meaning.
• Focused Content - Where clear wording allows AI and search engines to efficiently sift through the ideas within our words, delivering focused content helps them to determine the directionality of our thoughts.
• Appropriate Tone - If wording helps with filtration efficiency, and content focus helps with determining thought directionality, then tone projects intent. Some AI can detect 40 different tones. When AI or the algorithm can quickly and accurately determine your tone, they can then make inferences about your intent which help them to better index your content.

Adjustments to any of these three go a long way, and since they are interconnected, adjustments tend to compound. When we make a change to tone, say, not only does it often implicitly also change our clarity, but the change in tone impacts and amplifies any deliberate changes in clarity or focus which we choose to enact.

We can keep AI and the algorithm happy by being clear, focused, concise, and direct. Before I share my next ad or blog post, I am going to take the extra time to scan it for simplifications, clarifications, and anything in the tone which implies grandiosity or smugness on my part. If you find yourself with less traffic than you feel you reasonably deserve, I invite you to try the same. Let me know what happens.

Web Traffic Limiter: User Intimidation

Human interaction follows a very similar pattern as those mentioned in the previous section. This is not surprising. AI and algorithms intend to model after human behavior, so naturally, human behavior shares symmetry with AI behavior. Although the pattern is the same, the reason can be quite different.

While true that human visitors' sifting and scanning efficiency is catalyzed by clear, focused, and well-formatted content - as with AI - that often isn't the highest-leverage shift that we see. So what is?

It is something that comes downstream of that - lessened user intimidation. One of the most pervasive anxieties shared by people the world over is the fear of looking foolish or receiving criticism from someone whom one admires. Most of us admire those we perceive to be talented and competent. Many today are burdened with worry, impostor syndrome, and the fear of looking dumb.

What that means for us as writers and content creators is that when we are composing a post, ad, or article, we now have a point of reference against which to test our content: imagined user comfort. Some may prefer to filter out inexperienced or low-intent users through tone or ambiguity, but I prefer to invite the curious. That's just me. I saw a study recently, the results of which suggest that late bloomers tend to become high achievers more frequently than child prodigies.

When I keep that in mind, it is much easier for me to imagine taking on a student or a client whose idea is solid, even if some aspects are rough around the edges, or their background or presentation are non-standard.

If you want to take a similar stance and invite as many passionately curious people to your content as possible, that can be as easy as carrying the intention not to intimidate people like the citizen scientist featured in the video above when you write and record your content.

How To Go from Pitfall To Prosperity

I offer ad and content clarification services. If you want to try your hand at it yourself, take a second look at your content while holding these thoughts in mind. I will write more in depth pieces on the individual ideas shared here later, as they each deserve to be looked at closely and broken apart. Check back later!

For now, in the spirit of keeping Patrick's Pitfalls short and sweet, I am going to wrap this up.

Thanks for Reading

Thank you for reading 'Patrick's Pitfalls - Vague Wording'! Curious to know more about something you read here, or how to apply it? Reach out to me and let's discuss the possibilities.