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.
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.