How is this the top comment on a hacker news article... we all can't be bothered to use any critical thinking skills? Explain it to me like I'm 5 is seriously the most up-voted sentiment? This place has been proclaiming it's on a downtrend for years, but I think I finally believe it.

Edit: I believe in plain-speaking. "ELI5" being code for this is weird to me but if that's really what it is, cool. If it's really a code for "I want to understand this more deeply without jargon" I get it.

If it's code for "I don't want to understand this, just tell me the answer" then I don't really understand the appeal on a site like hacker news... that's the perspective that made me post initially. What is curious about this?

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delbronski 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Smugness level 110. It is a good question. Get over yourself please.

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hecanjog 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Fair enough, but I disagree that it's a good question. "Explain it to me like I'm 5" (not even written out in words, just the abbreviation we all know) is not a curious place to come from, it is a desire for the quickest path to the end/payoff.

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busyant 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think you're taking the comment too literally.

I took it to mean something like, "I won't understand an abstruse Ph.D.-level explanation of what happened. I need an explanation geared toward the layperson."

In fact, I think that's closer to the essence of ELI5--as opposed to literally explaining something at the 5 year old level.

I suppose you can quibble about using the initialism, ELI, but only if you're advocating for people who might be unfamiliar with its use. Otherwise, I don't understand your complaint.

	▲	hecanjog 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I don't think that I am. I don't think that they want to be treated like they're 5, but I do think they don't want to put thought into it. We're training ourselves to offload critical thinking and I was surprised to see it driving the conversation here.
	▲	2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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Loughla 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Eli5 is a common way of asking for clarification. That's all.

	▲	hecanjog 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's common, I know what it means. It communicated its intent properly, I think. It's surprising to me that a venture capital finance site would need to clarify the difference between value and wealth, and I would be interested in hearing questions about this, but "ELI5" doesn't even meet the basic criteria for being a question. It asks no questions.