Self Reference and Self Expression
May 22, 2003
In a comment to Insight versus Answers Andrea says all kinds of interesting things about the tension between developing shared understanding and effectively communicating ideas outside of the near group. Go read it. (0000R0)
Here are some teasers, brought to you by TransClusion: (0000R1)
Of course shorthands and special vocabularies can help encourage shared understanding. But I also think that if your goal is to connect disparate ideas, you need a constant review of what you're talking about _outside_ of the context of your own last breakthrough, so that you can hop around on various levels of abstraction, zooming in and out. And I think that to do this effectively, you have to keep moving away from your own private language, even as it develops. T (0000R2)
I think an interpretation of what Andrea is saying is that communication of ideas outside social or disciplinary circles is good for the ideas and good for the thinkers. In much the same way that it is helpful for an individual to write something down to get it out and into something other than private language it is good for a group to do the same. (0000R3)
And I should point out that whether you're consciously focussed on developing an idea or on articulating it, parenthetical context tends to be the stumbling block. It's blisteringly hard to keep digressions general enough so you don't lose focus, but specific enough to be useful. It's a difficult thinking problem; serving with your favo(u)rite hypertextual sauce can only take you so far. T (0000R4)
I agree. One of the problems with these PurpleNumber things is that they make it possible to make an email, wiki or blog posting that is nothing but a series of links. I've heard these referred to as a HomeworkPost. They cut down on the narrative flow which is often necessary for language to be persuasive. (0000R5)
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