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> In fact I hear people telling me they understood the blog _better_. The whole academic writing shtick has become so obtuse that not only writing is cumbersome
by bjourne 2y ago
> In fact I hear people telling me they understood the blog _better_. The whole academic writing shtick has become so obtuse that not only writing is cumbersome, but so is reading.
Legible writing has little incentive. You can write in a simple down-to-earth manner and risk having someone objecting "Your work is isomorphic to X, done years ago." Your counter-objection, "Well, X is so incomprehensible that no one had any chance of understanding it", will fall flat. Better not risk it, write in an obtuse form and withhold the source code.
- HdS84 2y agoI've studied political science in Germany. Unfortunately, most German political science people confused opaque writing with wisdom - basically hiding invalid theory behind an obtuse language. Nobody wanted to say out loud that they don't understand the language, so it helped to fortify their shit theories.
- aleph_minus_one 2y agoWhile there is a lot of bullshit hidden behind obtuse language, I would claim that in Germany there is a very different culture around what is a "good, clear academic text". When I see HN discussions, in the USA, it seems to be that simple, clear explanations are something to be cherished. On the other hand, in Germany, the academic ideal is to use terms that describe things as precisely and exactly as possible. In other words: - in the USA "clarity" means "describing things as simple and "understandable" (for less educated people) as possible". - In Germany (in particular humanities academia) "clarity" means "describing things in the most precise ('clear' in the sense of 'minimal risk of misunderstanding') terms as possible. You may assume that the reader is either sufficiently educated to know these specialist terms or take a serious effort to learn them". Thus, the expectations what "clarity" means in academic texts are very different between these countries.
- zero_k 2y agoYes. Exactly. If you make it readable and understandable, somehow the reviewers think it's easy. NO! It's easy because I made it easy for you to understand, and that's a good thing! If you invented BDDs or Petri Nets today, and didn't explain it over 5 pages of unreadable Greek alphabet, it'd be rejected. It's hilarious and really sad. Both are extremely useful, and intuitively "easy" tools. But they are so incredibly good and useful.