How to Read “There are letter writers, but no document writers”
Tekaki aredomo fumi kaki nashi
Meaning of “There are letter writers, but no document writers”
This proverb teaches that many people can write beautiful characters, but few can write meaningful content.
Lots of people have the technical skill to write elegant letters. However, only a limited number can write content that touches readers’ hearts, makes them think, or offers real value.
People use this saying to point out situations where form and appearance are perfect but substance is lacking.
For example, it applies to reports that look impressive but contain thin content. It also fits letters written in beautiful calligraphy that fail to communicate a clear message.
The proverb teaches that technique and essence are two different things. Polishing surface-level skills is relatively easy.
But creating valuable content based on deep thinking requires much higher abilities. This reality hasn’t changed over time.
Even today, we see the same problem in presentations that look stunning but lack substance.
Origin and Etymology
No clear records exist showing when or where this proverb first appeared in written form. However, the structure of the phrase offers interesting insights.
The contrast between “letter writers” and “document writers” forms the core of this proverb.
“Letter writers” refers to the technical skill of writing characters—the ability in calligraphy and penmanship. “Document writers” means the ability to compose meaningful content—the power to construct substantial writing.
During the Edo period, temple schools spread throughout Japan, and many common people learned reading and writing.
Education at that time emphasized practicing beautiful characters by copying models. But writing beautiful characters and writing content that moves people’s hearts are completely different abilities.
This proverb likely originated in educational settings or literary circles of that era.
It expresses a timeless reality: many people acquire formal techniques, but few possess true expressive power.
The contrast between technique and content, form and substance, is a universal theme that applies to all fields.
This saying teaches the importance of not just surface-level skills but also deep thinking ability and expressive power.
Usage Examples
- His thesis is “there are letter writers, but no document writers”—the graphs and tables look impressive, but his argument communicates nothing
- Social media posts of “there are letter writers, but no document writers” have increased—the designs are elaborate, but there’s no substance
Universal Wisdom
“There are letter writers, but no document writers” points to an eternal dilemma in human society. It highlights the difference in difficulty between arranging form and polishing essence.
Why are there many people who can do “letter writing” but few who can do “document writing”?
Because acquiring technique and deepening thought are completely different endeavors. Writing beautiful characters is something almost anyone can achieve with enough practice by following models.
But creating valuable content requires thinking deeply, accumulating experience, examining life, and developing your own voice.
This takes time, and not everyone will reach this level even with effort.
People tend to seek visible results. Beautiful characters, neat appearance, impressive format—these are easy to recognize as proof of effort and easy for others to appreciate.
Meanwhile, depth of content and quality of thought are not immediately visible. They’re difficult to evaluate, and sometimes they’re not even understood.
That’s why many people drift toward form while essence gets left behind.
This proverb sees through this human tendency and asks what truly matters. The emptiness of polishing only the surface, and the difficulty of acquiring true ability.
Understanding both of these might be the first step in growing as a person.
When AI Hears This
When you view written text through information theory, you notice how remarkably compressed the information becomes.
For example, a draft might say “Um, so yesterday, I met a friend at the station, and we talked, and it was fun.” This redundant expression gets condensed in the final version to just “Yesterday, I reunited with an old friend at the station.”
This change is exactly what information theory calls “entropy reduction.”
In Shannon’s information theory, high redundancy (saying the same thing repeatedly) means high entropy—a wasteful state. Refined writing, on the other hand, is a low-entropy state that keeps only necessary information.
However, this compression process has a major problem: irreversibility. Once you cut away nuances of expression and emotional fluctuations, you can never fully restore them.
Writers revise repeatedly, choosing which information to keep and which to discard.
This process is the same as “consuming energy to create order” in thermodynamics. Each revision uses mental energy to gradually crystallize the information.
At the letter-writing stage, possibilities are infinite. But the finished text becomes fixed in one unique form.
This proverb empirically captures the difficulty of this irreversible change where information’s degrees of freedom decrease.
Lessons for Today
This proverb teaches modern people to enrich the content before pursuing perfect appearance.
We live in an era where we worry about “looks” in every situation—social media, presentations, document creation.
Design tools are abundant, and anyone can create beautifully formatted documents. But that’s exactly why we must ask: is the content truly valuable?
This proverb tells us not to escape into form. Arranging appearance matters, but only when substance exists does it gain meaning.
First, think deeply about what you want to communicate. Develop the power to express yourself in your own words. That becomes your true ability.
Specifically, take time to think before writing. Cultivate your own perspective through reading and experience.
Maintain an attitude that prioritizes essential value over superficial decoration. This may take time.
But that effort will definitely make you different from others. Real ability has value precisely because it cannot be acquired overnight.
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