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| ▲ | rpdillon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| 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 expert is often incomprehensible to the listener. Technical jargon and fusillades of acronyms are often used to convey an explanation that has been denuded of all the foundations and context that might allow it to make sense. |
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| ▲ | 01284a7e 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | My point stands. The author can't explain explaining it like I'm ten like I'm ten. | | |
| ▲ | nemosaltat 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | It might be helpful to note that this article was written for the FT (as he mentions at the very bottom.) While it aphoristically may make a “pre out of you and me,” I presume neither the author, nor the subscribership of FT _are_ indeed (or wish to be) constrained to the language of a typical 10-year-old. Presumably the same would apply to the readership of HN. We don’t know if the author _can_ explain it like we’re ten, but I think we can be reasonably certain they understandably chose not to. | |
| ▲ | kelnos 15 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 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. | |
| ▲ | AnimalMuppet 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Ten-year-olds don't need advice on how to explain something like the listener is ten. | |
| ▲ | atoav 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Good thing they never claimed to be writing in that style then. Not sure what you're working yourself up over here. Authors are allowed to write about a method of writing without having to apply it themselves. | |
| ▲ | Chris2048 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Is "explaining it like I'm ten" a complex topic? |
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| ▲ | rzzzt 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's when multiple soldiers are ordered to fire their guns very quickly, either everyone at once or one after another. |
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| ▲ | thaumasiotes an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > No ten year old knows that word. Why would you think that? |
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| ▲ | ranger_danger 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I don't think the article itself was intended to be written for a 10-year-old to understand it. |
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| ▲ | nemosaltat 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Neither did the author > If you are reading this column you definitely aren’t a typical 10-year-old, but the image of the bewildered 10-year-old gives the expert an anchor to help them slow down and simplify [0] [0] TFA |
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| ▲ | nemosaltat 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Indeed, TFA isn’t exactly pellucid |
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| ▲ | vova_hn2 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| 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 (idk, why I never heard it. I knew the word "stroller", of course, but I never thought about different kinds of strollers), octogenarian (this one I could have guessed from Latin roots and context, was lazy). |
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| ▲ | hn_go_brrrrr an hour ago | parent [-] | | Pram is common in British English. I'm guessing you learned US English, which doesn't use it. | | |
| ▲ | pm215 35 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | 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. | |
| ▲ | KineticLensman an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Yes, as slang for ‘perambulator’, which is basically ‘stroller’ | |
| ▲ | thaumasiotes an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The word pram doesn't exist in American English, true, but you'll learn it anyway if you ever read Peter Pan. |
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