5 ms·

Thing explainer is fun -- but I don't think the descriptions in it are particularly clear. It's just fun to see how he solves the problem of describing them gi

Thing explainer is fun -- but I don't think the descriptions in it are particularly clear. It's just fun to see how he solves the problem of describing them given his self-imposed limitation. Even more fun is Poul Andersons "uncleftish beholding": http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/complexity/people/students/dtc/students2011/maitland/fun/ http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/complexity/people/st...

jeffwass 10y ago
For me, Thing Explainer was like a funny joke at first which got old VERY fast. To paraphrase an old Andrew Dice Clay quote : "It was like masturbating with a cheese grater. Slightly amusing, but mostly painful." I lost all interest in the book within five minutes of browsing it.
TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
I'm a fan of Guy Steele's Growing a Language, a talk about programming language design where he limited himself to using mostly only single-syllable words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0
- seanmcdirmid 10y ago
  Not to mentioned hand crayon drawn transparencies.
- e12e 10y ago
  This seems like a good companion (probably as a sequel) to: "Richard Feynman - Computer Heuristics Lecture": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA In general, Feynman might be a poster child for using simple language to explain complex things.
jgrahamc 10y ago
Agreed. Often you have to already know what he's talking about to get meaning from his words. For example, his description of the Saturn V Rocket (he replaced rocket with 'up goer') has this description of hydrogen: "The kind of air that once burned a big sky bag and people died (And someone said "Oh the [humans]!") I guess that's amusing if you already know about the Hindenburg, or something. Also, speaking of the propellant used for the Saturn V's F-1 engine he states: "This is full of that stuff they burned in lights before houses had power". The propellant in the F-1 engine was RP-1 (kerosene). I assume he was talking about 'town gas' for lighting.
- eterm 10y ago
  To be fair, Up-goer Five is the original for the comic, it was hardly intended at the time that it would take off the way it did. That it generated so much interest led to the book.
  - Pitarou 10y ago
    Are you sure it wasn't a teaser for a work in progress?
    - eterm 10y ago
      It was done in 2012, a teaser 3 years before the book release would be unusual.
- paol 10y ago
  Kerosene lamps were ubiquitous before electric lighting. Look at the pictures in the wikipedia page[0], you'll recognize them for sure. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp
  - Pitarou 10y ago
    It seems that, in trying to make a second point, jgrahamc accidentally proved his first.
    - jgrahamc 10y ago
      It wasn't an accident. I was showing that the ambiguity introduced by his language means that it's hard to understand what's really going on.
      - Pitarou 10y ago
        Well that was clever. :-)
Symbiote 10y ago
I'm interested to know what German, Dutch or Norse-descendant speakers think of that. I'm learning Danish, and reading that is similar, but easier, to deciphering letters from the electricity company.

jeffwass 10y ago

For me, Thing Explainer was like a funny joke at first which got old VERY fast. To paraphrase an old Andrew Dice Clay quote : "It was like masturbating with a cheese grater. Slightly amusing, but mostly painful." I lost all interest in the book within five minutes of browsing it.

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago

I'm a fan of Guy Steele's Growing a Language, a talk about programming language design where he limited himself to using mostly only single-syllable words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0

seanmcdirmid 10y ago
Not to mentioned hand crayon drawn transparencies.
e12e 10y ago
This seems like a good companion (probably as a sequel) to: "Richard Feynman - Computer Heuristics Lecture": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA In general, Feynman might be a poster child for using simple language to explain complex things.

jgrahamc 10y ago

Agreed. Often you have to already know what he's talking about to get meaning from his words. For example, his description of the Saturn V Rocket (he replaced rocket with 'up goer') has this description of hydrogen: "The kind of air that once burned a big sky bag and people died (And someone said "Oh the [humans]!") I guess that's amusing if you already know about the Hindenburg, or something. Also, speaking of the propellant used for the Saturn V's F-1 engine he states: "This is full of that stuff they burned in lights before houses had power". The propellant in the F-1 engine was RP-1 (kerosene). I assume he was talking about 'town gas' for lighting.

eterm 10y ago
To be fair, Up-goer Five is the original for the comic, it was hardly intended at the time that it would take off the way it did. That it generated so much interest led to the book.
- Pitarou 10y ago
  Are you sure it wasn't a teaser for a work in progress?
  - eterm 10y ago
    It was done in 2012, a teaser 3 years before the book release would be unusual.
paol 10y ago
Kerosene lamps were ubiquitous before electric lighting. Look at the pictures in the wikipedia page[0], you'll recognize them for sure. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp
- Pitarou 10y ago
  It seems that, in trying to make a second point, jgrahamc accidentally proved his first.
  - jgrahamc 10y ago
    It wasn't an accident. I was showing that the ambiguity introduced by his language means that it's hard to understand what's really going on.
    - Pitarou 10y ago
      Well that was clever. :-)

Symbiote 10y ago

I'm interested to know what German, Dutch or Norse-descendant speakers think of that. I'm learning Danish, and reading that is similar, but easier, to deciphering letters from the electricity company.