# The Principle of One

Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2022/06/14/principle-of-one.html

When I make a slide deck for a new presentation, invent a new domain name, think about
a name for a new Java class, itemize bullet points in an academic paper, even
write an email---I try to follow a simple principle which helps me make
my content more solid. Well, at least I believe it does. Maybe it will help you as well.
The principle is simple: at all costs, try to squeeze the content into
_one_ word, _one_ sentence, _one_ paragraph, or _one_ page.


{% jb_picture_body %}

A more formal definition of the principle would be this:
it's either one word/sentence/paragraph/page _or_ way more.
Let's see an example. Say I need to list my plans for tomorrow:

```text
- write a new article
- send an email to my boss
- cook a dinner
- take a nap
```

Do any of them need to be longer than one word? Not really. "Take a nap"
is just three words, as is "cook a dinner". On the one hand, three might not be considered
"way more" than one. On the other, they could be shortened without
any loss of meaning. Thus, I have to decide whether to make them all _much_
longer than one word or shorten them all to a single one.
The second choice is always preferable:

```text
- article
- email
- dinner
- nap
```

I wrote about [compound variable names]({% pst 2015/jan/2015-01-12-compound-name-is-code-smell %})
in an earlier post: the same principle is applicable
to them. Variables must either be nouns without any other words around them,
or use many more words, which is an exceptional situation.

In another [blog post about resumes]({% pst 2016/mar/2016-03-08-pimp-up-your-resume %})
I mentioned that a good CV must take exactly one page.
If it's more, it should be many more. But definitely not two
or three pages.

I suggest applying this principle to every piece of content
you write: try to squeeze it into _one_.