diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
index c48382c6b477..f8ec23fa89bc 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
@@ -899,7 +899,8 @@ which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device
 and driver, and are tagged with the right level:  dev_err(), dev_warn(),
 dev_info(), and so forth.  For messages that aren't associated with a
 particular device, <linux/printk.h> defines pr_notice(), pr_info(),
-pr_warn(), pr_err(), etc.
+pr_warn(), pr_err(), etc. When drivers are working properly they are quiet,
+so prefer to use dev_dbg/pr_debug unless something is wrong.
 
 Coming up with good debugging messages can be quite a challenge; and once
 you have them, they can be a huge help for remote troubleshooting.  However