It would be a writing course. Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version. I don’t care about the topic. I care about the editing. I care about the constant refinement and compression. I care about taking three pages and turning it one page. Then from one page into three paragraphs. Then from three paragraphs into one paragraph. And finally, from one paragraph into one perfectly distilled sentence . . . This is important because I believe editing is an essential skill that is often overlooked and under appreciated. The future belongs to the best editors.

Each step requires asking “What’s really important?” That’s the most important question you can ask yourself about anything. The class would really be about answering that very question at each step of the way. Whittling it all down until all that’s left is the point.

What Jason is really getting at is this: writing and editing well require the writer to think clearly about what she is trying to say. A scatter-brained person will never write anything worth reading.

People remember well-written stories because they are so simple (although not easy to write). The short stories of John Cheever are an example of this clarity and simplicity in writing, and I recommend this collection entitled The Stories of John Cheever.

Ernest Hemingway once said:

If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There are seven-eights of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.

The ability to reflect carefully upon your message and eliminate unnecessary points also happens to be critical to good design, whether it’s a dress (Jil Sander), a computer (iPhone, Mac, iPad), a software program (Mac OS X) or a house (the Schindler House in Los Angeles).

Unfortunately these days, as Jason Fried says in his post, editing is underappreciated. It takes time. Most online publications want their writers to pump out as much material as possible. It’s quantity over quality because it’s all about the number of pageviews. But such an approach compromises the quality of the writing and in the end, compromises the message.

I fear that the problem goes beyond content factories. As we become more and more distracted by email, Twitter, Facebook, and social games, we become unable to concentrate on any task at hand, least of all writing and editing.

Mapplr’s favorite ryokans in Japan

Macworld: traditional conference trade show format is dead, what’s next?

Will VC funds produce the next Madoff?

No Exit: venture capital firms struggle to sell startups

Make Skype calls from your iPhone and iPod Touch via Truphone

Windows CE, which encompasses every Windows Mobile device shipped, holds a 0.06 percent share; Danger Research’s Sidekick product family holds a tiny 0.02 percent share; and the Symbian S60 smartphone platform, favored by Nokia, has 0.01 percent.

My take is that it has everything to do with the user interface and how easy it is to visit sites, check maps, look for information online. A lot of phones are clunky (terrible design) with the typical phone dialing pads or have ugly, impossibly small screens. Who would want to browse a website on that?

UPDATE: SFR, the French operator, launched their version of “unlimited” mobile 3G Internet access. Click here to see the press release and here to see the article with video clip on Journal du Net. Several problems with this:

• There are 3 different tariffs (39, 49 and 69 EUR) with various services, like mobile TV associated with them. I find it confusing.
• You have to sign up for 12 to 24 months. What if you just want access when you are in France occasionally?
• Works only with certain phones.

If this is the mobile operator’s way to encourage mobile Internet use, good luck.

The good news is that my iPhone works flawlessly. With my existing T-Mobile account, I get 1,300 more minutes of talk time than I would have received from AT&T for a comparably priced plan; I also now have a phone that I can take to Asia and Europe. I avoided a $200 termination fee, AT&T’s activation fee, and having to wait for AT&T to port my existing number. On the downside, I don’t have AT&T’s visual voicemail, and I have to stay away from Apple’s software upgrades, which might brick the phone. But it’s easy to download third-party apps, like iPong. Best of all, my geek friends are impressed.

Read the rest of Professor Wu’s article on Slate. In the meantime, Apple’s most recent attempt (version 1.1.1) to turn its customers’ iPhones into $500 paperweights has failed. Hackers have figured out a way to hack that as well, giving users, once again, the freedom to user their phones however they want to.

UPDATE: Dewayne Hendricks emailed me to say that hackers have read access to the filesystem on the iPhone, but not complete write access. They’re very close though. Click here to visit the iPhone hacker site.

Wi-Fi is even more important for iPhone users in the U.K. where, according to media reports, the exclusive iPhone provider O2 covers just 30% of the British population. To help make up for the skimpy coverage, subscribers will be offered free connections to Wi-Fi provider the Cloud, which operates more than 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.K.

T-Mobile has a lot of hotspots around the world and in Germany, so Apple’s choice of partner in that country is wise. However, will a T-Mobile Germany user be able to seamlessly log onto a T-Mobile hotspot in San Francisco? We shall see . . . .

Why is this funny?

(1) Assuming I am an iPhone owner, which I am not, it’s MY phone. I bought it. The cellular operator isn’t even subsidizing it so I have every right to choose what I download onto the phone, how I use it, etc. When it leaves the store, Mr. Jobs has no right to tell me what the heck I am going to use it for and how. I can flush it right down the toilet, stomp on it, grind it into a thousand little pieces, it’s none of his damn business. He’s got his money, he should shut up and be happy.

(2) The hacker community “owns” the iPhone. Whatever fix Apple tries to apply to the device, the hacker community will come up with an update of its own to neutralize Apple’s “fix”. Apple is wasting time and money, and annoying its customers.

(3) Steve Jobs added: “People will try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in.” Wait – it’s my phone. I decided who to let in, not Apple. Apple’s “fixes” are intrusive. It’s Apple who’s breaking into MY phone.

But I don’t have to worry about this . . . for now because I don’t have an iPhone. I refuse to buy it unless it works on 21st century mobile networks – like 3G for a start.

Vincent Everts posted this solution on Fred’s blog:

Fred, I had the same problem. If you add 00000000 or 123456789 as a social security number then you will be automatically enrolled in the pre paid program. I am a dutch alien I did not have a number. The first time I used the social security number of my son which is one year old and who had bad credit. But easier is to go to www.iphonehacks.com and get the phone unlocked. Then you can use any sim card you like. Takes about 45 minutes.

I guess one of the ways to get an AT&T prepaid card is to NOT pay your monthly subscription plan, so they automatically classify you as a deadbeat and then move you to the prepaid plan. Good grief!

I don’t understand why Fred Wilson encountered this problem. When you visit AT&T’s website, their prepaid plans section does not mention any strange restrictions (i.e. that you need to be a deadbeat first before they sell it to you).

It’s a staggeringly, hatefully complex document, designed by some Monty Pythoneseque committee in charge of consumer confusion . . . I get SIX PAGES of listings of data tidbits that the iPhone has downloaded in the form of email and Web pages–KILOBYTE BY KILOBYTE! Every graphic on every Web page, every message sent or received–it’s all carefully listed by date and time. Not as anything helpful like NYTIMES.COM HOME PAGE or EMAIL–no, no. Instead, every single one of the hundreds of listings says the same thing: “Data Transfer” of type “Data” at rate code “MBRF,” along with how many kilobytes it was (usually 1K or 3K).

This is exactly what happens when you have a business based on billing by the kilobyte (a telco) attempting to deliver Internet access on an “unlimited” data plan.