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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8789388" data-attributes="member: 7023840">The primary issue with analogies & metaphors on the internet (including this forum) is this-The best use of an analogy is generally to explain. A good analogy can illuminate - if you've ever taught or tutored, you know that a skillful analogy help illuminate underlying concepts. Here, for example, the car analogy (and this is hardly the first time it has been used) is trying to get to the salient point- that design has a goal and an intended audience, and that "good design" does not exist in a vacuum. A person designing a broadly popular car will have different design goals than a person designing a performance sports car (for example). Even the idea of what is "broadly popular" changes over time-  your use of a Corolla is slightly anachronistic, as the top selling vehicles in the US are all pickup trucks and SUVs/CUVs (in 2021, of the top 25 best-selling vehicles, 4 were sedans; #6 was a Toyota Camry, #10 was a Honda Civic, #12 was the Corolla, and #16 was an Accord). Heck, if I was to use the car analogy, I would probably say that D&D 5e is a pickup truck (#1, #2, and #3). You can complain that it's poorly designed for most consumers because it's just being used to go to the grocery store and drive around and they don't need a pickup trick, but guess what? Maybe you should learn why people keep buying them, because if all you are doing is making hot hatches with stick shifts in the American market, you're not selling many vehicles.Anyway, in my experience one of two things usually happens when you are using an analogy: (1) either the person doesn't get it (because there are people who just aren't great at analogies, very literal, etc.); or (2) the person will argue with the analogy. The second is usually the issue- again, the purpose of the analogy is to try and explain a position. It is always a trivial exercise to argue with an analogy because (as you correctly noted) analogies are not identities. But if you're offering an analogy to explain, and the other person wished to argue, it will always prove unhelpful.</blockquote>

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