Past a certain point it circles around and writing clearly becomes high status again. Look at Feynman’s Lectures. There’s a specific kind of self-assured and competent expert that will know that talking in simple words about their topic will not make it any less obvious that they still know a shit-ton more about it than anyone else in the room, and that is how they can even make it sound simple.
This is called counter-signalling, and it usually only works if everyone already knows that you are an expert (and the ones who don’t know, they get social signals from the others).
Imagine someone speaking just as simply as Feynman, but you are told that the person is some unimportant elementary-school teacher. Most people would probably conclude “yes, this guy knows his subject well and can explain it simply, which deserves respect, but of course he is incomparable to the actual scientists”. On the other hand, someone speaking incomprehensibly will probably immediately be perceived as a member of the scientific elite (unless you have a reason to suspect a crackpot).
Bah, writing simply and clearly is low status, obscure scripto est summus status.
(...is the instinct you need to overcome.)
Past a certain point it circles around and writing clearly becomes high status again. Look at Feynman’s Lectures. There’s a specific kind of self-assured and competent expert that will know that talking in simple words about their topic will not make it any less obvious that they still know a shit-ton more about it than anyone else in the room, and that is how they can even make it sound simple.
This is called counter-signalling, and it usually only works if everyone already knows that you are an expert (and the ones who don’t know, they get social signals from the others).
Imagine someone speaking just as simply as Feynman, but you are told that the person is some unimportant elementary-school teacher. Most people would probably conclude “yes, this guy knows his subject well and can explain it simply, which deserves respect, but of course he is incomparable to the actual scientists”. On the other hand, someone speaking incomprehensibly will probably immediately be perceived as a member of the scientific elite (unless you have a reason to suspect a crackpot).