Re: Sysop Scenario FAQ

From: Gordon Worley (redbird@rbisland.cx)
Date: Mon Feb 04 2002 - 14:52:53 MST


On Monday, February 4, 2002, at 03:09 PM, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:

> The way you convince people is not through repetition of flat
> statements;
> the way you convince people is through the repeated novel variation of
> structured, rational arguments until one of them sinks in. This is
> actually my main problem with Gordon's current Sysop pages; the concepts
> are stated, but not argued. Even if your target audience is core

Eep, I guess I've learned too much about writing from statistics (or
maybe mathematics in general). I try very hard to *not* reargue points
that have already been argued (successfully) elsewhere. But, since I'm
not the only reader (I personally find restatements of arguments
annoying, in general), I should make changes to better suite the average
reader.

Or, maybe another way of putting this bit of writing wisdom is "don't
get too comfortable with your audience; they never know quite as much as
you think that they do".

Well, back to the writing grind stone. ;-)

--
Gordon Worley                     `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty
http://www.rbisland.cx/            said, `it means just what I choose
redbird@rbisland.cx                it to mean--neither more nor less.'
PGP:  0xBBD3B003                                  --Lewis Carroll


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