In general, thinking of yourself commuciating your ideas to a less intelligent and knowledgeable person could push you in the direction of confabulating freeer-flowing stories whereas imagining yourself communicating your ideas to a smarter person could push you in the direction of saying less, with higher-rigour.
Maybe you can get the best of both worlds by imagining you’re writing a children’s book, but that your editor is in fact an expert on the subject and you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of them.
What’s the (imagined) motivation for explaining to someone smarter or more knowledgeable? No use explaining to someone who clearly already knows. The amount that almost everyone should say to a climate scientist about global warming is approximately zero.
In general, thinking of yourself commuciating your ideas to a less intelligent and knowledgeable person could push you in the direction of confabulating freeer-flowing stories whereas imagining yourself communicating your ideas to a smarter person could push you in the direction of saying less, with higher-rigour.
It seems like which one is desirable depends on the individual and the context (cf the Law of Equal and Opposite Advice)
Maybe you can get the best of both worlds by imagining you’re writing a children’s book, but that your editor is in fact an expert on the subject and you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of them.
Or you could imagine writing for a smarter but less knowledgeable person. E.g. 10 y.o. Feynman.
To HJPEV.
What’s the (imagined) motivation for explaining to someone smarter or more knowledgeable? No use explaining to someone who clearly already knows. The amount that almost everyone should say to a climate scientist about global warming is approximately zero.
The way I read Ryan was that they are smart and informed, except on the subject you’re informing them about.