Look for good examples of plain-enough talk on LW. 1b. If I can’t find any, lower my standard of “plain enough” and try again.
Upvote those examples.
Comment on those examples, praising their plain-talk-ness. Be as specific as I can about what makes them plain talk and why that’s good. Suggest ways to make them even more plain talk.
When I find enough examples, write a discussion post that praises them as exemplifying plain talk and demonstrates why that’s good.
When I find subsequent examples, upvote with an “upvoted for plain talk” comment and a link to that post.
When people ask for feedback on their writing, suggest specific ways to make it more plain talk; include a link to that post.
Perhaps also, find examples of otherwise good posts that are not plain talk and attempt to paraphrase in plain talk. We need some protocol to mitigate offense, though.
Yeah, that’s tricky. For example, I considered pointing out that a plainer-talk version of “Any suggestions as to how that work might be incentivized?” might be “How do I encourage people to do that?” but wasn’t sure how that would be taken.
In general, the sentiment we want to convey seems to be, “That was interesting, informative, and precise. Here’s an attempt to make it more approachable:”
Though one good thing about this approach is that if other people don’t consider my plaintalkified version of X to be superior to X, and I do, that can be very educational… I may discover, for example, that what I consider to be virtues of plain talk aren’t universal and I’ve been other-optimizing all along.
Sure.
Look for good examples of plain-enough talk on LW.
1b. If I can’t find any, lower my standard of “plain enough” and try again.
Upvote those examples.
Comment on those examples, praising their plain-talk-ness. Be as specific as I can about what makes them plain talk and why that’s good. Suggest ways to make them even more plain talk.
When I find enough examples, write a discussion post that praises them as exemplifying plain talk and demonstrates why that’s good.
When I find subsequent examples, upvote with an “upvoted for plain talk” comment and a link to that post.
When people ask for feedback on their writing, suggest specific ways to make it more plain talk; include a link to that post.
Perhaps also, find examples of otherwise good posts that are not plain talk and attempt to paraphrase in plain talk. We need some protocol to mitigate offense, though.
Yeah, that’s tricky. For example, I considered pointing out that a plainer-talk version of “Any suggestions as to how that work might be incentivized?” might be “How do I encourage people to do that?” but wasn’t sure how that would be taken.
In general, the sentiment we want to convey seems to be, “That was interesting, informative, and precise. Here’s an attempt to make it more approachable:”
.
Though one good thing about this approach is that if other people don’t consider my plaintalkified version of X to be superior to X, and I do, that can be very educational… I may discover, for example, that what I consider to be virtues of plain talk aren’t universal and I’ve been other-optimizing all along.