Eh. This is not generally possible for those without exceptional talent. Also personally, when I’m learning new ideas, I usually need to absorb a popularized simplification, think on it for a while, and develop nuances for it over time after gaining some experience manipulating the idea in my mind. A lot of the time the advanced intuitions which surround a subject are too vague for me to put into words (at least without strenuous effort). Metaphors and simplifications are the stuff of thought.
I do acknowledge, though, that the specific suggestions given are probably possible for almost any writer to use effectively. I just dislike the idea that popularizations need to somehow be as rigorous as actual scientific work yet more entertaining. That feels like an overly demanding standard, an excuse to sneer at the peons outside the ivory walls.
I agree. Lichtenshtein uses the following quote of Timiryazev’s as an example of appropriate style, and it’s full of metaphors. I sometimes think that ‘good’ sci-pop should just keep track of allusions and spend several paragraphs on patiently enrolling them. Then another passage of distilled wisdom...
‘The green leaf, or, more exactly, the microscopic grain of chlorophyll is the focus, the point in the world’s space where the sun’s energy flows in through one end, and from the other one take off all manifestations of life on earth. The plant is a mediator between the sky and the earth. It is the true Prometheus who stole the heavenly fire. The seized ray burns in the glowing kindling chip and in the blinding spark of electricity. The ray of the sun impels to move the monstrous flywheel of the steam machine, and the brush of the artist, and the feather of the poet.’
...but all bets are off when the author inserts a mathematical formula. Why are there so few cases when the formula is explained in its entirety, not just ‘x stands for blablabla...’? Why not spend ten lines talking about different outcomes for different parameter values, if you really need to put it there at all? I always find it so frustrating. Not only there’s usually pretty nowhere I can easily look up the coefficients, …, I’m often left stymied as to what, exactly, do other people use it for.
Since I’m unsure where else to place this recommendation, I’ll take this opportunity to put it here. I’m currently reading the book The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature and absolutely loving it. It deals with advanced topics in a way that’s so easy to understand I imagine it could be taught to fourth graders. Each chapter deals with a type of pattern, such as bubbles, or cracks, or waves, and discusses several examples of where those patterns appear and why, and what that indicates about the pattern. I’m not a physicist, but I’m reading the book because the experience is less like learning about physics and more like learning about common heuristics of thought.
Eh. This is not generally possible for those without exceptional talent. Also personally, when I’m learning new ideas, I usually need to absorb a popularized simplification, think on it for a while, and develop nuances for it over time after gaining some experience manipulating the idea in my mind. A lot of the time the advanced intuitions which surround a subject are too vague for me to put into words (at least without strenuous effort). Metaphors and simplifications are the stuff of thought.
I do acknowledge, though, that the specific suggestions given are probably possible for almost any writer to use effectively. I just dislike the idea that popularizations need to somehow be as rigorous as actual scientific work yet more entertaining. That feels like an overly demanding standard, an excuse to sneer at the peons outside the ivory walls.
I agree. Lichtenshtein uses the following quote of Timiryazev’s as an example of appropriate style, and it’s full of metaphors. I sometimes think that ‘good’ sci-pop should just keep track of allusions and spend several paragraphs on patiently enrolling them. Then another passage of distilled wisdom...
‘The green leaf, or, more exactly, the microscopic grain of chlorophyll is the focus, the point in the world’s space where the sun’s energy flows in through one end, and from the other one take off all manifestations of life on earth. The plant is a mediator between the sky and the earth. It is the true Prometheus who stole the heavenly fire. The seized ray burns in the glowing kindling chip and in the blinding spark of electricity. The ray of the sun impels to move the monstrous flywheel of the steam machine, and the brush of the artist, and the feather of the poet.’
...but all bets are off when the author inserts a mathematical formula. Why are there so few cases when the formula is explained in its entirety, not just ‘x stands for blablabla...’? Why not spend ten lines talking about different outcomes for different parameter values, if you really need to put it there at all? I always find it so frustrating. Not only there’s usually pretty nowhere I can easily look up the coefficients, …, I’m often left stymied as to what, exactly, do other people use it for.
Since I’m unsure where else to place this recommendation, I’ll take this opportunity to put it here. I’m currently reading the book The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature and absolutely loving it. It deals with advanced topics in a way that’s so easy to understand I imagine it could be taught to fourth graders. Each chapter deals with a type of pattern, such as bubbles, or cracks, or waves, and discusses several examples of where those patterns appear and why, and what that indicates about the pattern. I’m not a physicist, but I’m reading the book because the experience is less like learning about physics and more like learning about common heuristics of thought.