What makes a word explanation good?

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  • Establishes the prerequisites/background the reader needs, and then builds on that background
  • Simulates the reader's inexperienced state of mind
    • Anticipates common misinterpretations/misconceptions and counters them
    • Does not assume infinite working memory (what goes wrong when this is violated: Unbounded working memory assumption in explanations)
    • When different words/terms/phrases are used to point to the same idea, this is explicitly pointed out (synonyms are very common even in technical fields!)
    • When the same word/term/phrase is used to refer to different ideas, this is pointed out (this is also very common even in technical fields!)
    • When defining things, give all four kinds of examples
  • Considers all or many permutations of ideas (see permutation trick for a similar idea) -- actually it's more like sometimes when people write, they will implicitly establish a "table" with columns for attributes and rows for examples, and then they will fill in some of the cells but not others; example where this doesn't happen: https://github.com/riceissa/project-ideas/issues/18
  • Alternates between concrete and abstract
  • Actually gives a precise/technical/gears-level/mechanistic model for the reader to tinker with
  • Each time you use a phrase, make sure the reader knows what the phrase means (this often turns into a problem when you use a vague phrase that could mean many things, or you use some really abstract-sounding phrase where the reader has no idea which concrete things it connects to; it's similar to vaguebooking)
  • Structured as discovery fiction
    • Opens with the motivation for studying the topic, the "so what"
    • Gives motivation for steps throughout
    • Doesn't just give the crucial insight, but also the general heuristic one would use to discover such insights
    • Mentions obvious but failed approaches to the topic/things that don't work

See also