Re:The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing
by davesque on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @01:00PM
(#10459351)
On the other hand, we have perfectly reasonable jargon which become needlessly complicated when attempts are made to explain them in simple terms.
Take the concept of a Monad from type theory, for example, which can be entirely explained in a few sentences: It's a type class which requires implementation of a bind function and a unit function. Also, a few equations involving bind and unit must always hold (only a few!). That's it. That is exactly what it is and nothing more (well, aside from the actual type signatures of bind and unit and the actual equations, which would have taken up even less space than this paragraph).
This bit of jargon only becomes complicated when you try and explain all of its implications. But there are infinitely many implications so, at a certain point, you just have to sit back and say, "Well, a Monad is exactly its definition and that's all...and its definition is most effectively expressed in terms of the jargon."
Take the concept of a Monad from type theory, for example, which can be entirely explained in a few sentences: It's a type class which requires implementation of a bind function and a unit function. Also, a few equations involving bind and unit must always hold (only a few!). That's it. That is exactly what it is and nothing more (well, aside from the actual type signatures of bind and unit and the actual equations, which would have taken up even less space than this paragraph).
This bit of jargon only becomes complicated when you try and explain all of its implications. But there are infinitely many implications so, at a certain point, you just have to sit back and say, "Well, a Monad is exactly its definition and that's all...and its definition is most effectively expressed in terms of the jargon."