That's not laziness. It's just prioritization. It's how not "just adding this one feature" isn't laziness. It's prioritization. I want to show my character's i

That's not laziness. It's just prioritization. It's how not "just adding this one feature" isn't laziness. It's prioritization. I want to show my character's intelligence. I show her playing a game of chess, surprising the experienced player. The chessboard isn't important. The pieces aren't important. It is a language I share with my audience. They see "this person's smart". They barely see the chessboard. It's like computer hacking or bombs. The light turns green from red. Our heroes have downloaded the data. The red light blinks, beeping frighteningly loudly as the timer ticks to explosion while the maintenance man walks obliviously by. The audience does not question this because the beep is not a word, the light and the ticking not a phrase, the entire scene is a concept, an entire page. It describes the fact that an explosion is imminent and it will be a surprise to the victims. The audience has trained itself to see things like this, think concept to concept, by learning the language of the filmmaker. Some are forced out from that flow for other reasons and some just because they aren't proficient in this language that millions know. But ultimately, the shared language develops and most will learn and understand.