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"- to use only simple and common words in efficient sentences is becoming almost universal, and yet "good writing" doesn't always obey these rules." I would sa

"- to use only simple and common words in efficient sentences is becoming almost universal, and yet "good writing" doesn't always obey these rules." I would say it depends what you write and to whom. If your target is "the internet" where most people only speak simple english - you absolutely want to use simple english, if you want to reach more people. And also in everyday life I made an effort to value clarity and simplicity in speech way over complicated layered sentences that might have made my teachers proud - but would be cause for further missunderstanding with the people around me (my partner has a different first language than me). And I would say, the whole world is in a state of confusion caused by missunderstanding. If people would speak and write a bit more clean and clearly (like good code) I think everyone would benefit. That being said, if you want to reach a higher level of communication - and not just pass mere facts, but adress emotions and deep thoughts - than yes, there is the great art of poetry. Natural languages are not mathematical precise for a reason. But as long as basic simple communication is not working - I think it is seldom helpful to use even more complicated/vague language

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
>And I would say, the whole world is in a state of confusion caused by missunderstanding. If people would speak and write a bit more clean and clearly (like good code) I think everyone would benefit. many professions have concepts that are complicated to understand for people outside the profession and as such develop their own jargon. The development of jargon that is perceived as unfriendly and complicated to people outside the profession is often driven by the need for greater clarity inside the profession. Finally in the case of programming languages and clarity arguments, clarity relates to your expertise, the less expert phrasing is sometimes overly verbose and destructive to quick comprehension, while the expert phrasing may seem incomprehensible to the non-expert.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  "clarity relates to your expertise, the less expert phrasing is sometimes overly verbose and destructive to quick comprehension, while the expert phrasing may seem incomprehensible to the non-expert. " An expert programmer should write adequate code for the target audience - the people who will actually read and work with that code later. They need to understand it, so he or she should not use advanced constructs, when beginners will work with the codebase. Likewise with scientific language: If you speak to fellow scientists you can and must use your special language. Way more efficient. But if you give a press conference to present your findings, you have to use simpler terms, if you want people to understand you. Many great discoveries probably got lost that way, because scientific language was not translated adequately.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago

>And I would say, the whole world is in a state of confusion caused by missunderstanding. If people would speak and write a bit more clean and clearly (like good code) I think everyone would benefit. many professions have concepts that are complicated to understand for people outside the profession and as such develop their own jargon. The development of jargon that is perceived as unfriendly and complicated to people outside the profession is often driven by the need for greater clarity inside the profession. Finally in the case of programming languages and clarity arguments, clarity relates to your expertise, the less expert phrasing is sometimes overly verbose and destructive to quick comprehension, while the expert phrasing may seem incomprehensible to the non-expert.

hutzlibu 5y ago
"clarity relates to your expertise, the less expert phrasing is sometimes overly verbose and destructive to quick comprehension, while the expert phrasing may seem incomprehensible to the non-expert. " An expert programmer should write adequate code for the target audience - the people who will actually read and work with that code later. They need to understand it, so he or she should not use advanced constructs, when beginners will work with the codebase. Likewise with scientific language: If you speak to fellow scientists you can and must use your special language. Way more efficient. But if you give a press conference to present your findings, you have to use simpler terms, if you want people to understand you. Many great discoveries probably got lost that way, because scientific language was not translated adequately.