I used to get annoyed when LWers misread my posts in ways that they wouldn’t have if they had been reading more carefully. I conceptualized such commenters as being undisciplined, and being unwilling to do the work necessary to maintain high epistemic standards. I now see that my reading was in many cases uncharitable, analogous to many of my teachers having misread my learning disability as reflecting laziness. Many of my readers have probably never had the opportunity to learn how to read really carefully.
Careful reading doesn’t come naturally. Everyday English prose is redundant enough that one doesn’t have to read word-for-word to get an overall picture of what’s going on. The sort of reading required to understand dense technical writing takes a lot of practice to pick up.
Careful reading doesn’t come naturally. Everyday English prose is redundant enough that one doesn’t have to read word-for-word to get an overall picture of what’s going on. The sort of reading required to understand dense technical writing takes a lot of practice to pick up.