" Brevity Is Best: Nicknamed " Silent Cal," President Calvin Coolidge was once challenged by a reporter, saying, " I bet someone that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge responded, " You lose." The notion of crafting six word memoirs really took off after Smith Magazine shared this poignant one written by Ernest Hemingway: " For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." Pithiness Pays Off For Other Reasons: When required to be brief, for example, we gain clarity about what we really mean -- or have to offer. As Mark Twain once wrote, in a slower-paced time, " I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. "