What I wonder is why is it (often) seen as necessary to belabor the obvious, when the point can be stated succinctly with greater clarity?
Summary: Because updates don’t propagate automatically. A story with examples has higher chance of triggering a real update. Stories about people having significant losses and gains have the highest chance.
Long version:
I should insert here a story about how I did some faulty reasoning for years, even though I knew the correct theory, because I knew the theory only on a “teacher’s password” level, and I didn’t realise that my problem is an instance of the theory. I lost my money, my home, my girlfriend, and spent five years in a mental institution. Then I tried to kill myself and almost succeeded.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui.
And then I understood my mistake, and now I am wealthy multi-billionaire, a president of my country, with a harem full of most beautiful girls. All because I took this principle seriously. So, my dear friend, don’t make the same foolish mistake that I did. You will thank me later.
And by the way all information in this “long version” is fictional, but it serves to prove my point.
A story with examples has higher chance of triggering a real update.
An important point, deserving serious discussion. It’s probably the correct answer as to why posters think examples are generally useful. My own view, which I’m prepared to update as necessary, is that the function of examples is to elucidate a claim that’s otherwise hard to understand. When the examples are either tedious or harder to comprehend than the claim, I think examples are self-defeating.
One reason is that the comprehension or impact that triggers updates is often greater when readers construct their own examples. Then, there’s also the obvious point that if a posting is overly time-consuming or boring, some people who would have read a more succinct posting won’t read one that’s bloated.
What actually triggers updates deserves a lot more explicit attention. I’m leery of the oft-heard response, “I’ve updated.” How do you know you have? Or if you have, how do you know you’ve done it correctly, to the appropriate extent? These questions also raise the issue of whether belaboring an obvious point triggers excessive updating (overcompensation), by making the claim more compelling than it is. I notice that the examples in the lead post concealed the flaw in the reasoning.
I think it’s not an “either/or” situation. Examples help to understand the issue (understanding the summary requires that writer’s and reader’s maps are sufficiently similar), to remember it better, and help to think about one’s own life (if the example is good). And yes, a bad example is bad, and a long example is inherently bad, unless author has great storytelling talent.
Summary: Because updates don’t propagate automatically. A story with examples has higher chance of triggering a real update. Stories about people having significant losses and gains have the highest chance.
Long version:
I should insert here a story about how I did some faulty reasoning for years, even though I knew the correct theory, because I knew the theory only on a “teacher’s password” level, and I didn’t realise that my problem is an instance of the theory. I lost my money, my home, my girlfriend, and spent five years in a mental institution. Then I tried to kill myself and almost succeeded.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui.
And then I understood my mistake, and now I am wealthy multi-billionaire, a president of my country, with a harem full of most beautiful girls. All because I took this principle seriously. So, my dear friend, don’t make the same foolish mistake that I did. You will thank me later.
And by the way all information in this “long version” is fictional, but it serves to prove my point.
An important point, deserving serious discussion. It’s probably the correct answer as to why posters think examples are generally useful. My own view, which I’m prepared to update as necessary, is that the function of examples is to elucidate a claim that’s otherwise hard to understand. When the examples are either tedious or harder to comprehend than the claim, I think examples are self-defeating.
One reason is that the comprehension or impact that triggers updates is often greater when readers construct their own examples. Then, there’s also the obvious point that if a posting is overly time-consuming or boring, some people who would have read a more succinct posting won’t read one that’s bloated.
What actually triggers updates deserves a lot more explicit attention. I’m leery of the oft-heard response, “I’ve updated.” How do you know you have? Or if you have, how do you know you’ve done it correctly, to the appropriate extent? These questions also raise the issue of whether belaboring an obvious point triggers excessive updating (overcompensation), by making the claim more compelling than it is. I notice that the examples in the lead post concealed the flaw in the reasoning.
I think it’s not an “either/or” situation. Examples help to understand the issue (understanding the summary requires that writer’s and reader’s maps are sufficiently similar), to remember it better, and help to think about one’s own life (if the example is good). And yes, a bad example is bad, and a long example is inherently bad, unless author has great storytelling talent.