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Article seems confused about the difference between 'wealth' and 'income'. It has to be tough trying to write about complicated topics while staying under a 'f

Article seems confused about the difference between 'wealth' and 'income'. It has to be tough trying to write about complicated topics while staying under a 'fourth grade reading comprehension' ceiling, or whatever the target is. How confusing the world is when you have to stick to the 'ten hundred' most common words and concepts. (ten-hundred from XKCD) https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/ https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/

ctdonath 5y ago
If you own your home, and are otherwise completely out of debt, you can live much better on far less income. Income doesn't mean much if most of it is going toward debt service. Anecdote: Trump had an epiphany when he realized a bum on the street was literally worth more than he was financially.
theonemind 5y ago
I've found a slight modification of the ten hundred word concept pretty useful when/if I want to write a simple explanation. Sticking rigidly to 1,000 words introduces its own problems, but judicious use of the principle usually turns out a pretty nice result. I start with the ability to use those 1,000 words freely, and if I want to use a word not on the list, I consider carefully whether the value in introducing it outweighs the cognitive overhead, and/or if I can use words already in the list without loss of meaning, and generally allow words I've used at least once to get used again (so the list grows once I've decided that I really have to use a word not on the list). Additionally, no jargon at all appears on the list, so I often explain a jargon term in terms of words on the list or that I've added to the list, then add the jargon word to the list and keep using it going forward, so it serves as a canary-in-the-coal-mine for terms I should explain rather than start throwing around without thinking about it in that way as well. It can turn out a surprisingly clear result that doesn't even show much sign of having started with a limited amount of words. It doesn't seem dumbed-down or vocabulary impaired, just easy to read (given that I do use any word that really seems to decrease the complexity of the explanation or cognitive overhead.) It takes some time, so I didn't do it here, but if I did, this explanation would be clearer!

ctdonath 5y ago

If you own your home, and are otherwise completely out of debt, you can live much better on far less income. Income doesn't mean much if most of it is going toward debt service. Anecdote: Trump had an epiphany when he realized a bum on the street was literally worth more than he was financially.

theonemind 5y ago

I've found a slight modification of the ten hundred word concept pretty useful when/if I want to write a simple explanation. Sticking rigidly to 1,000 words introduces its own problems, but judicious use of the principle usually turns out a pretty nice result. I start with the ability to use those 1,000 words freely, and if I want to use a word not on the list, I consider carefully whether the value in introducing it outweighs the cognitive overhead, and/or if I can use words already in the list without loss of meaning, and generally allow words I've used at least once to get used again (so the list grows once I've decided that I really have to use a word not on the list). Additionally, no jargon at all appears on the list, so I often explain a jargon term in terms of words on the list or that I've added to the list, then add the jargon word to the list and keep using it going forward, so it serves as a canary-in-the-coal-mine for terms I should explain rather than start throwing around without thinking about it in that way as well. It can turn out a surprisingly clear result that doesn't even show much sign of having started with a limited amount of words. It doesn't seem dumbed-down or vocabulary impaired, just easy to read (given that I do use any word that really seems to decrease the complexity of the explanation or cognitive overhead.) It takes some time, so I didn't do it here, but if I did, this explanation would be clearer!