I’m 28, and I can’t recall ever having to use this excuse while believing it to be a valid response. (And I reached my grad school conclusion Seth mentions when I was about his current age.)
This may be selective memory, so I could be wrong. The closest I’ve come on here was when I expressed shock at Alicorn’s suggestion of “Why don’t you just meet women on the internet?”, but I could have given an answer had not HughRistik given a thorough one shortly thereafter.
In non-argumentative contexts, when I’m trying to explain something, I’ll usually say, “I could explain this, and I’m sure you’re capable of understanding it, but it would take a while to explain it”—and then of course do so if they want to and I have the time. If there are steps in the explanation I don’t understand, I admit it.
If I ever appeal to experience, I give an explanation of what insight that experience gives so that my opponent will be able to identify counterarguments.
Perhaps you could count my sensitivity to noise, and how I can’t explain that to someone who doesn’t have the same conscious experience of noise, but I can at least explain its effect on me.
To everyone, my advice would be:
1) Your job isn’t as hard as you claim. 2) If you can’t explain it, that says more about your own understanding of it than its actual complexity. 3) You can probably convey more knowledge than you expect.
I’m 28, and I can’t recall ever having to use this excuse while believing it to be a valid response. (And I reached my grad school conclusion Seth mentions when I was about his current age.)
This may be selective memory, so I could be wrong. The closest I’ve come on here was when I expressed shock at Alicorn’s suggestion of “Why don’t you just meet women on the internet?”, but I could have given an answer had not HughRistik given a thorough one shortly thereafter.
In non-argumentative contexts, when I’m trying to explain something, I’ll usually say, “I could explain this, and I’m sure you’re capable of understanding it, but it would take a while to explain it”—and then of course do so if they want to and I have the time. If there are steps in the explanation I don’t understand, I admit it.
If I ever appeal to experience, I give an explanation of what insight that experience gives so that my opponent will be able to identify counterarguments.
Perhaps you could count my sensitivity to noise, and how I can’t explain that to someone who doesn’t have the same conscious experience of noise, but I can at least explain its effect on me.
To everyone, my advice would be:
1) Your job isn’t as hard as you claim.
2) If you can’t explain it, that says more about your own understanding of it than its actual complexity.
3) You can probably convey more knowledge than you expect.