Don't mean to sound like an insult, but this is the first tool (that I know of) intentionally designed to make people stupider.
Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
171–180 of 230 posts
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#172Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.
Being able to express and understand complex concepts is the difference between "smart" and "dumb", educated and uneducated.
An average 4 year old in extreme poverty or public care has 10M words directed at him. A 4 year old with professional parents hears 50M. That's a key differentiator that drives future potential.
Many people lack sophisticated literacy for a variety of reasons. When Honda opened a factory in Alabama, they changed written assembly instructions into pictograms due to the poor literacy level. In aviation, documentation is written in "simplified technical English" to assist non-native English speakers.
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#173Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.
The technique is working quite well for Donald Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/15/ho... > Some of his answers last only a few seconds, some are slightly longer, but almost all consist of simple sentences, grammatically and conceptually, and most of them withhold their most important word or phrase until the very end. Trump’s sentences end with a pop, and he seems to know instinctively wh…
It's hardly unique to Trump. Politicians have labored to eloquently say as little as possible since the Assyrians.
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#174It should support a few template sentences which define a word, which is then allowed to occur in the remainder of the text. More useful than a document which uses only 1000 common words is a document which uses only 1000 words, plus words which it clearly defines. I feel as if I could write almost anything if I have that, and it will be self-contained and accessible to anyone with the thousand word vocabulary, plus…
Keep in mind that the point of these exercises is to make instructions, explanations and short narratives more approachable.
If describing something with a limited vocabulary is awkward and impossible, maybe your approach is too complex.
My 4 year old is starting to learn how to read, and you can see in his eyes the connections made when he tries to read a basic level book. The sentence structure is obvious and predictable, and he's pretty good at getting it.
With a more complex book (Ex: The Little Red Caboose), he recognizes words and "paraphrases" the story with the pictures.
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#175Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.
I personally use http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ when I think I've gone a bit lazy in the way I have written an article.
Great tool
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#176This might actually be really useful when communicating online with developers overseas who don;t speak English natively. Recently started using upwork and found myself rewriting instruction to use common words.
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Some people think that big words are good. Me, I think good writing should be like good code; short and easy to understand.
Well clarity != short/simple. Which is sort of the joke of the whole book/this idea. It can often take many more words (which just makes an idea more complicated) if you rely on this kind of idea (which yes, I'm aware is a joke) than just using the correct word. It's also very possible to get the gist of a word, based on where it is placed and the words around it -- even if you don't know exactly what it means. (Obvi…
I strongly suspect there is a happy medium to be found. Maybe more than 1000 most popular words...and maybe just augment a limited dictionary with an addendum for technical terms not in the short dictionary, but that are extremely common for the subject. E.g. in my case, maybe "domain" isn't in the dictionary, but I obviously need it to talk about DNS. I would reasonably expect even foreign language speaking administrators to know this word.
So, it's a joke, but maybe a useful thought exercise, too.
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
This idea reminds me of an amazing talk by Guy Steele: https://youtu.be/_ahvzDzKdB0 He starts the talk by assuming monosyllabic words as his primitives and builds up the words he needs to use to give the talk by providing definitions for them first.
Thanks for that, I really enjoyed it. Back when Java was new and cool...
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Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#179Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.
I think a much better approach would be to start with the 1000 most common words, but allow defining terms from there. This allows you to develop the correct jargon which will both enhance understanding and allow communication with others about the topic in the future. Having to continually fall back on silly terms like "up goer" does nothing to enhance understanding when you can define what a rocket is and then just…
I think even slang terms have a place here. Not sure if the goal is to really improve language skills. If not, any new widely accepted terms could be defined and optionally rated by a community for wider acceptance. If the word is fairly new it could be highlighted in some way to indicate its popularity.
Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
The technique is working quite well for Donald Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/15/ho... > Some of his answers last only a few seconds, some are slightly longer, but almost all consist of simple sentences, grammatically and conceptually, and most of them withhold their most important word or phrase until the very end. Trump’s sentences end with a pop, and he seems to know instinctively wh…
Trump bashing is lame. Trump has used words in his speeches that you probably couldn't define. I heard him casually use PROGNOSTICATION a couple weeks ago. He's not dumb. It's actually a sign of intelligence to use the simplest language necessary when expressing yourself to a broad audience (many with low education). People who use unnecessarily large words are usually doing it to try to sound smarter than they are a…
Ah yes, prognostication. Such a rare word that it's only uttered multiple times in one of the most popular Bill Murray movies made which is guaranteed to be on TV at least once a year. Seriously, that's not even nearly one of the best words.