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Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

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Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#221

Post by kbenson »

jshevek wrote: post #183
gnaritas wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He speaks like a child, it works because his base is stupid and they relate. It's not a skill, he just isn't that bright.

If Trump honestly believed everything that he says, I would agree that his thinking would necessarily be shockingly _shallow_ on many issues. But to compare him to a four year old then make a sweeping statement like "isn't that bright" ? How could anyone think this? Isn't it obvious that there are domains in which he is, for better or worse, exceptionally intelligent within that domain?

I think it's interesting to try to identify his domain. I think it's marketing. He is exceptional at marketing, and at generating personal wealth from that. That is different from being a good businessman, or knowing how to run a business (and for his method of wealth generation, may by in opposition to it). I think he's very good a perpetuating his own extreme boom and bust cycles, and coasts along on that. While at the top, he's able to capitalize on the success to extend his brand,

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#222

Post by Semiapies »

iamcurious wrote: post #218
Retra wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it should be the 1000 least ambiguous words.

I suspect that a list of the least ambiguous words would be made entirely of numbers.

That and extremely technical terms.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#223

Post by OJFord »

gregschlom wrote: post #24

Am 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 thought the same thing when it was done (or was it 10k?) for _Things Explained_ by 'the XKCD guy'.

Great idea, needs more words. It's too extreme.

In the case of this editor, it may actually be useful to some if `N` were configurable, and maybe exceptions could be added. (If you're writing an OS X user guide say, you want to be able to write 'OS X'!)

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#224

Post by sametmax »

kbenson wrote: post #219
sametmax wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because he doesn't aim to actually solve problems or provide meaningful answers. Simples words are good if your goal is to be rally a large number of people. But it's not practical if you want to build a car, honestly debate about social issues or describe how un cell works. What a lot of smart people don't understand though, is that in politics, not trying to solve problems, but trying to appeal to people is th…

I think it works well for high level overviews. This may be in part because it prevents the use domain knowledge and terminology, which is natural for an expert who might be writing the overview, but hard for a layman to grasp. Put more simply, I think it's useful to describe something generally, but not when trying to describe in detail or specify attributes exactly.

Exactly.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#225

Post by thaumasiotes »

Spooky23 wrote: post #173
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #42

Earlier 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…

It's hardly unique to Trump. Politicians have labored to eloquently say as little as possible since the Assyrians.

Assyrian kings had a lot to say. You could expect to hear about their illustrious ancestors going several generations back, and their many military and domestic accomplishments (like irrigation projects).

Not so much about what they wanted to do in the future. They didn't stand for elections.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#226

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

wernercd wrote: post #214
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My intent is not to bash Trump. I actually think that he's one of the more talented people running for POTUS. This is not to say that I support him or his views (I am voting for Gary Johnson [1]), but I respect his ability to maneuver the media to suit his aims. It is my contention that his strong aptitude with using appropriate/effective language is one of the main reasons he can wield the media around so effortless…

So... your throwing your vote away? The two party system is deeply flawed, but when has a third party candidate done anything but taken votes away from reasonable candidates?

If any third party candidate is going to do this in 2016, it is going to be Donald Trump after he and his supporters walk out of the GOP convention.

I'm an independent that lives in NYC. My vote is always a throw away vote.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#227

Post by duaneb »

tacos wrote: post #137
duaneb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A joke that would improve the writing of most people.

Sorry, "improve" is not in the list.

See? I need to better my own use of words. We all speak and write in ways others can not understand unless we make the effort—especially in a place where not everyone speaks our language.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#228

Post by eru »

m741 wrote: post #148
j_koreth wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also ignores also that most Democratic presidents spoke on the same level

The article literally has a chart showing that the current candidates are all speaking at a higher level, and that the remaining candidates, Democrat and Republican, are speaking at 8th 9th, and 10th grade levels. Of the current cohort of candidates only Kasich is near Trump. If you're talking about presidents (which is unfair, the type of speech you give as president vs candidate, and debates are different), it's cl…

Has anyone ever calibrated these levels with actual n-th graders?

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#229

Post by Kaius »

gregschlom wrote: post #24

Am 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.

Exactly! There is a phrase in Thing Explainer where Randall is trying to say that a part of a space shuttle or something is made in Japan, instead of using 'Japan' he has to say something like "the land where the sun comes up" or close to it (I don't think he could use 'rising' but may be not be recalling correctly). It breaks down as soon as you try to convey something beyond base level understanding.

So yes, it sounds like using the most common 1K words would aid readability but you probably need to raise that to 2.5K or more. Low enough to avoid the use of complex words while also freeing the author from awkward phrasings.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#230

Post by throwanem »

kkylin wrote: post #147
zzkt wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/AndrewHynes/eprime-mode

Thanks! My first question upon seeing this post was: isn't there already an emacs mode for this?

There is now: https://github.com/aaron-em/ten-hundred-mode.el

(There was before, under the name "1000-words.el", but it isn't very good, and it also isn't, and can't easily be made, available via MELPA. So I wrote this instead. The PR to add it to MELPA is open and awaiting review; pretty soon you should be able to M-x package-install RET ten-hundred-mode RET and get it.)

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