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Explain it to me like I'm ten

timharford.com

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Re: Explain it to me like I'm ten

#21

Post by pm215 »

hn_go_brrrrr wrote: post #16
vova_hn2 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the author is doing it deliberately, to put the reader in the shoes of someone who has a hard time understanding some of the words, and reinforce his point. As a non-native English speaker there are 4 words in this article that I had to look up, which is significantly higher than a typical article from HN frontpage (usually it's 0, occasionally 1). If anyone curious, the words are: pellucid, fusillades,…

Pram is common in British English. I'm guessing you learned US English, which doesn't use it.

Though even in the UK I think it has a slightly old fashioned feel -- I feel like parents are more likely to have a pushchair than a pram.

Re: Explain it to me like I'm ten

#22

Post by bariumbitmap »

I'd say a lot of the value in "explain it to me like I'm ten" is just expending more time and effort in explaining something. People of all ages respond to engaging writing and clever analogies, and that tends to accompany the style of writing for a younger or broader audience.

Re: Explain it to me like I'm ten

#23

Post by kelnos »

01284a7e wrote: post #6
rpdillon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blog post isn't directed at 10-year-olds. In fact, you're pulling a phrase from a paragraph that's describing exactly how you should not speak when talking to a 10-year-old. > The simplest constraint for anyone trying to explain a complex topic is to accept the request to “explain it to me like I’m 10 years old”. What’s packed into that request is, vividly exaggerated, the reminder that what seems obvious to an e…

[flagged]

The author can do that, but didn't for literary effect. And he can do that because his audience is FT readers, not 10-year-olds.

Re: Explain it to me like I'm ten

#26

Post by temporallobe »

My favorite quote from Mark Twain is “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”. Indeed, brevity and clarity actually take time and analysis. I find this to be very true when writing requirements or documentation. Some of the worst requirements I’ve read have been extremely wordy and unnecessarily over-technical or jargon-heavy when it could have been explained in plain language. As usual, it very much depends on the target audience.

Re: Explain it to me like I'm ten

#27

Post by necovek »

temporallobe wrote: post #26

My favorite quote from Mark Twain is “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”. Indeed, brevity and clarity actually take time and analysis. I find this to be very true when writing requirements or documentation. Some of the worst requirements I’ve read have been extremely wordy and unnecessarily over-technical or jargon-heavy when it could have been explained in plain language. As u…

Incidentally, that's my favourite quote from Blaise Pascal: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/

Re: Explain it to me like I'm ten

#28

Post by ErrantX »

vova_hn2 wrote: post #15
01284a7e wrote: post #2

[flagged]

I think that the author is doing it deliberately, to put the reader in the shoes of someone who has a hard time understanding some of the words, and reinforce his point. As a non-native English speaker there are 4 words in this article that I had to look up, which is significantly higher than a typical article from HN frontpage (usually it's 0, occasionally 1). If anyone curious, the words are: pellucid, fusillades,…

As a native English speaker; pellucid was new to me.

Fusillades specifically was unfamiliar but I inferred if from context and knowing fusilier.

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