4 ms·

I don't know if you're realizing it, but you're being quite offensive to the parent poster... I don't know who (s)he is, but I know this "communication style"

I don't know if you're realizing it, but you're being quite offensive to the parent poster... I don't know who (s)he is, but I know this "communication style" and it's also my preferred default way of communicating when I don't have to talk with people I don't share much context or to whom I may want to sell/advocate something :| It's about being dense and DRY while still saying a lot by painting a rich and nuanced context. Sure, it might be more prevalent amongst conspiracy theory people, but it's not a hallmark of them. Professionals like eg. surgeons also use dense jargon + funny-ish allegories and references when talking to each other. It's basically like writing Perl, or dense Haskell, but for human2human communication... there's a beauty to it :)

stavros 5y ago
What's the offense? I didn't mean any. > It's basically like writing Perl, or dense Haskell, but for human2human communication... there's a beauty to it :) Sure, it's great when you're in a room of people who you know share your jargon, that's why jargon exists. I wouldn't bat an eyelid if someone here talked about AES or LTV or conversions or funnels, but I bet that very few people here understood what the GP was talking about.
- catchclose8919 5y ago
  > why write like this? This comment makes no sense to me > transmission-poor You're insulting their communication skill, but some (I'd say possibly many) people actually enjoy reading/listening to this kind of communication. I actually really enjoyed it and found it funny and witty, and satisfying especially because it made me google for ~30sec to find out about Thucydides and Melos to be able to decode "old Melian", and then more to solve the puzzle of the "Piper" - although native Enlish speakers are more familiar with the The Pied Piper of Hamelin I'd guess or at least with the "pay the piper" expression. I actually find regular low-density conversations excruciatingly boring so tuning the density way up and sprinkling some puzzles in there improves my ability to focus and not tune out as I do in many conversations. It's a form of communications that helps AHDHed-techno-creatives like us follow and enjoy conversation and reading more actually, not transmission-poor but on the contrary more like transmission-enhanced, but probably only for a subset of people with brains wired a particular way. (Now that I think about it, even the sci-fi literature that I enjoy reading, eg. Charlie Stross, Vernor Vinge is a bit like this comment, although way more diluted probably to appeal to a greater audience... and yeah, I guess conspiracy theories are the lower end trash version of "sci-fi appealing to ADHDed-techno-creatives", so it kind of makes sense.) ...come to think about it, I'd pay an arm and leg for access to a news outlet that would summarize latest news in this writing or talking style + a subtle injection of dark humor into it, and I'm probably not the only one! ...I imagine it with a Tom Lehrer background intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs :)
  - stavros 5y ago
    I disagree with your claim that I insulted them because I said the comment makes no sense to me, it doesn't. I'm glad you like it, though, I guess I'm just not the target audience.
  - kragen 5y ago
    You're right, Accelerando was so much this, and I thought it was glorious. (My wife, by contrast, couldn't make it through the first page.) It's a shame what Stross turned into later. I'm curious what you think of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504506 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504506, though I also don't think stavros was insulting them.
    - catchclose8919 5y ago
      I agree with most of it except the last phrase of your ① which here I don't think it applies - people into conspiracies and alt-left/right/whatever are not such a clearly delineated in-group and I think they're generally too sloppy to use subtle shibboleths. But here's an interesting paradox here, it's a kind of jargon but it's not for specialists. Kind of like an expert generalist's jargon. And the inner group is "everybody who knows enough to figure it out". A bit oxymoronic, like an "open-access secret-society". I'd guess that schizoid personality types may be attracted to dense and reference-rich language. And these very same types would be attracted to conspiracy theories due to their desire to belong, just as it's known they're attracted to esotericism. Overall I think the jargon and in-group signaling is real, but there's more to it, this compression-rich and high-connectivity thinking and communication mode is distinct, doesn't need to be about group signaling etc., and conspiracy theorists and other such groups are just what happens when this mode of thinking goes wrong, it's the pathological variation.
polotics 5y ago
Parent poster here. No worries the comments about my sanity are not that bad IMHO. I could get more offended by the reference to Haskell! You know, with stress and all, posting on HN becomes a weird outlet. The in-group size may be larger than one, everyone should read Thucydides now, but hey, whatever!

stavros 5y ago

What's the offense? I didn't mean any. > It's basically like writing Perl, or dense Haskell, but for human2human communication... there's a beauty to it :) Sure, it's great when you're in a room of people who you know share your jargon, that's why jargon exists. I wouldn't bat an eyelid if someone here talked about AES or LTV or conversions or funnels, but I bet that very few people here understood what the GP was talking about.

catchclose8919 5y ago
> why write like this? This comment makes no sense to me > transmission-poor You're insulting their communication skill, but some (I'd say possibly many) people actually enjoy reading/listening to this kind of communication. I actually really enjoyed it and found it funny and witty, and satisfying especially because it made me google for ~30sec to find out about Thucydides and Melos to be able to decode "old Melian", and then more to solve the puzzle of the "Piper" - although native Enlish speakers are more familiar with the The Pied Piper of Hamelin I'd guess or at least with the "pay the piper" expression. I actually find regular low-density conversations excruciatingly boring so tuning the density way up and sprinkling some puzzles in there improves my ability to focus and not tune out as I do in many conversations. It's a form of communications that helps AHDHed-techno-creatives like us follow and enjoy conversation and reading more actually, not transmission-poor but on the contrary more like transmission-enhanced, but probably only for a subset of people with brains wired a particular way. (Now that I think about it, even the sci-fi literature that I enjoy reading, eg. Charlie Stross, Vernor Vinge is a bit like this comment, although way more diluted probably to appeal to a greater audience... and yeah, I guess conspiracy theories are the lower end trash version of "sci-fi appealing to ADHDed-techno-creatives", so it kind of makes sense.) ...come to think about it, I'd pay an arm and leg for access to a news outlet that would summarize latest news in this writing or talking style + a subtle injection of dark humor into it, and I'm probably not the only one! ...I imagine it with a Tom Lehrer background intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs :)
- stavros 5y ago
  I disagree with your claim that I insulted them because I said the comment makes no sense to me, it doesn't. I'm glad you like it, though, I guess I'm just not the target audience.
- kragen 5y ago
  You're right, Accelerando was so much this, and I thought it was glorious. (My wife, by contrast, couldn't make it through the first page.) It's a shame what Stross turned into later. I'm curious what you think of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504506 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504506, though I also don't think stavros was insulting them.
  - catchclose8919 5y ago
    I agree with most of it except the last phrase of your ① which here I don't think it applies - people into conspiracies and alt-left/right/whatever are not such a clearly delineated in-group and I think they're generally too sloppy to use subtle shibboleths. But here's an interesting paradox here, it's a kind of jargon but it's not for specialists. Kind of like an expert generalist's jargon. And the inner group is "everybody who knows enough to figure it out". A bit oxymoronic, like an "open-access secret-society". I'd guess that schizoid personality types may be attracted to dense and reference-rich language. And these very same types would be attracted to conspiracy theories due to their desire to belong, just as it's known they're attracted to esotericism. Overall I think the jargon and in-group signaling is real, but there's more to it, this compression-rich and high-connectivity thinking and communication mode is distinct, doesn't need to be about group signaling etc., and conspiracy theorists and other such groups are just what happens when this mode of thinking goes wrong, it's the pathological variation.

polotics 5y ago

Parent poster here. No worries the comments about my sanity are not that bad IMHO. I could get more offended by the reference to Haskell! You know, with stress and all, posting on HN becomes a weird outlet. The in-group size may be larger than one, everyone should read Thucydides now, but hey, whatever!