I just finished reading an article about a growing trend in some college admissions offices requesting that applicants answer a supplemental essay question as part of the standard admissions process…and do it in just 20 to 25 words or less. Perhaps colleges are forging this new direction to appeal to a generation that grew up with status updates, texts, and microblogging or maybe admissions counselors see it as a way to cut down on the tedium of reading long-winded essays, but some think it’s an effective strategy for seeing another side of an applicant or learning things about them that they may not pick up on from reading a traditional essay. But in any case, it seems like the concept that less is sometimes more has finally penetrated the academic community and I think it’s a step in the right direction.

The concept that less is sometimes more is also a growing trend in resume writing which has been equally influenced by an information overloaded society that wants their content fast and in digestible sound bites. I’ve long been a proponent of shorter, tighter, writing, void of bloated summary paragraphs that espouse a candidate’s nebulous personal attributes or blocky chunks of text to describe mundane job responsibilities. Instead I favor concise bullets that communicate compelling actions and tangible results to support a person’s candidacy and most recruiters and hiring managers I talk to feel the same way.

The concept of less is sometimes more became most evident to me last year following my father’s passing. My father was cremated and we were instructed that we could have a message on the stone but were limited to just ten characters. At first this sounded like such a daunting task. How do you possibly sum up a man’s life in ten characters or less? But we quickly came up with numerous words that expressed our feelings and selected the simple word “beloved.” Accurate, to the point, and 3 characters to spare. Perfect for my father, a less is sometimes more kind of guy.

More is not necessarily better. Whether you are writing your resume, sending a networking email, applying to college, or remembering a loved one, sometimes fewer words are actually more powerful.