Whats the best way to write about a complicated field? My long-ago WSJ colleague Gary Putka had a wonderful piece of advice: Dont be afraid to write about whats obvious. Garys underlying point: Much of the time, an experts idea of obvious turns out to be new and fascinating to the layperson. One of Yales big thinkers, Steven Pinker, explores this insight more fully in this weekend essay. He explains that smart people end up creating a lot of bad writing by dashing into the details too fast, without taking any time to meet their audience on less-technical, friendlier ground. Im also an increasingly big fan, on Reddit, of this subreddit: reddit/r/explainlikeimfive. They tackle everything from Islam to plasma screen TVs, with great clarity and good cheer.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 16:05:27 +0000
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