Bit of a pointless gripe (and not too specific to this post), but I wish we could use the word “pedagogy” instead of “distillation”. Not only is “pedagogy” much more understandable to lots of potential readers, but I don’t think “distill” is even capturing a helpful mental image. “Distillation” in chemistry is getting rid of all the excess to make something super-concentrated. But that’s often the opposite of good pedagogy! Imagine (1) a dense math proof with almost no English words, (2) an explanation of the same proof with lots of examples and diagrams and stories and intuitions, and explaining the same thing multiple times from multiple perspectives, etc. When I imagine “distillation” in the original (chemistry) sense, to me it invokes a mental image much closer to (1) not (2). But (2) is better pedagogy, and (2) is what we actually want in this context.
(For example, Rob Miles videos are not designed to pack in the maximum possible number of concentrated insights per second of video.)
Explanation, Popularization, “X for dummies”, “introduction to X”, “conceptual introduction to X”, “mathematical introduction to X”, “introduction to X for economists”, “ELI12: X”, “textbook”, “lecture series”, “Voxsplainer”, “Blog post on X”, “Semitechnical introductory dialog on X”…?
I think distillation can describe the process very well from the right perspective. Imagine an academic paper in physics or math with pages of bunch of formulae. Obviously, the average person isn’t going to understand them, so a distiller would take out all the jargon and specialized knowledge to leave behind the main ideas.
Bit of a pointless gripe (and not too specific to this post), but I wish we could use the word “pedagogy” instead of “distillation”. Not only is “pedagogy” much more understandable to lots of potential readers, but I don’t think “distill” is even capturing a helpful mental image. “Distillation” in chemistry is getting rid of all the excess to make something super-concentrated. But that’s often the opposite of good pedagogy! Imagine (1) a dense math proof with almost no English words, (2) an explanation of the same proof with lots of examples and diagrams and stories and intuitions, and explaining the same thing multiple times from multiple perspectives, etc. When I imagine “distillation” in the original (chemistry) sense, to me it invokes a mental image much closer to (1) not (2). But (2) is better pedagogy, and (2) is what we actually want in this context.
(For example, Rob Miles videos are not designed to pack in the maximum possible number of concentrated insights per second of video.)
FYI there are three different words I need, and I don’t know what the proper… conjugation? is for pedagogy:
Distiller (person who does the job of streamling/clarifying)
Distillation [1] (an instance of a distilled work)
Distillation [2] (the general topic of creating distillations. This is the one I think “pedagogy” means)
The first one could be called “a teacher”, but, that has different connotations when you’re writing things down or whatnot.
Umm, popularizer, educator, clear writer, lucid writer, explainer, expositor, educator, blogger, Eliezer-whisperer (=Rob)…?
Explanation, Popularization, “X for dummies”, “introduction to X”, “conceptual introduction to X”, “mathematical introduction to X”, “introduction to X for economists”, “ELI12: X”, “textbook”, “lecture series”, “Voxsplainer”, “Blog post on X”, “Semitechnical introductory dialog on X”…?
Yeah, I guess “pedagogy”.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also “communicator”, e.g. “science communicator”.
I think distillation can describe the process very well from the right perspective. Imagine an academic paper in physics or math with pages of bunch of formulae. Obviously, the average person isn’t going to understand them, so a distiller would take out all the jargon and specialized knowledge to leave behind the main ideas.