Patterns in confusing explanations

1006 · Julia Evans · Aug. 19, 2021, 7:21 p.m.
Hello! Recently I’ve been thinking about why I explain things the way I do. The usual way I write is: Try to learn a topic Read a bunch of explanations that I find confusing Eventually understand the topic Write an explanation that makes sense to me, to help others So why do I find all these explanations so confusing? I decided to try and find out! I came up with a list of 12 patterns that make explanations hard for me to understand. For each pattern I’ll also explain what I like to do instead...