Writing philosophy
I believe in what I call "functional writing". That is, writing that accomplishes a specific task. That might sound weird, but it's the literary equivalent of the Unix philosophy: creating a piece of writing that does one thing, and does it well. If you need more than one thing accomplished, create a new work to accomplish it. Avoid bloat. Minimalism is better than fancy, frilly fluff.
It's taking Strunk's exhortation to "Omit needless words" to the next level: eliminating needless thoughts which in turn eliminates needless features. It's the implicit understanding that there's usually an inverse correlation between number of words and clarity. Fiction writers are admonished to show the reader instead of telling the reader. I believe this is the wrong approach for a writer to take with technical, medical, and business writing.
A professional's scarcest resource is attention. It doesn't matter whether he or she is a lawyer, physician, researcher, or programmer. Reaching a professional audience where they are is more important than producing a work of transcending beauty. We're not trying to win a Pulitzer; we're trying to educate, explain, or convince.
At its heart, functional writing is about respecting the reader's time and attention.