RPG Theory- The Limits of My Language are the Limits of My World

[MichaelSomething]

All I’m suggesting is that saying it’s popular now because it’s always been popular doesn’t explain what made it popular to begin with. Note that 5e has become immensely more popular despite he previous edition being much less popular in comparison.

Critical Role??

 

[MGibster]

Um.... folks were making points about accessible language. You are trying to not get too academic, but use a word like "tendentious"?

You're right. We should eschew obfuscation in order to encourage perspicuity.

 

[Fenris-77]

I want my Helm of Language Complication back. Gimme.

 

[Umbran]

You're right. We should eschew obfuscation in order to encourage perspicuity.

So, I'm a physicist by training. This is a field that is immersed in deep, elaborate, arcane mathematics, inscrutable to most mortal eyes.

One of the greatest minds of the field, the man who invented Quantum Chromodynamics, Richard Feynman, famously noted that if you cannot explain a topic in simple, easy to understand language, you probably don't understand it that well yourself.

Using layers of jargon with the uninitiated is the antithesis of successful communication.

 

[Fenris-77]

I have a lot of love for Richard Feynman.

Edit: His The Pleasure of Finding Things Out does at least suggest that plain language wasn't anathema to him.

 

[Ovinomancer]

So, I'm a physicist by training. This is a field that is immersed in deep, elaborate, arcane mathematics, inscrutable to most mortal eyes.

One of the greatest minds of the field, the man who invented Quantum Chromodynamics, Richard Feynman, famously noted that if you cannot explain a topic in simple, easy to understand language, you probably don't understand it that well yourself.

Using layers of jargon with the uninitiated is the antithesis of successful communication.

I feel this is a red herring, though, because things have been discussed without jargon, using simple direct language, and the responses from those more interested in disruption that engagement is the same. For people that are willing to listen, I haven't seen that jargon is actually a barrier to discussion, especially since jargon is usually clearly explained at least 3-4 times in threads. Like, every time I mention Force* in a thread for the first few times, I include the definition of it. So that argument that avoiding jargon results in better outcomes on these topics doesn't really seem to hold much water.

*Force is the GM enforcing an outcome on play regardless of player inputs, action declaration, or system output.

 

[MGibster]

One of the greatest minds of the field, the man who invented Quantum Chromodynamics, Richard Feynman, famously noted that if you cannot explain a topic in simple, easy to understand language, you probably don't understand it that well yourself.

Using layers of jargon with the uninitiated is the antithesis of successful communication.

I've never really thought about it that way, but I think this Feynman guy is onto something. If you were to speak to me as one of your brother physicist magicians, well, admittedly, a lot of it would go right over my head. But if you know it backwards and forwards, you can probably find some other way to explain it to me. It won't make me an expert at your level but at least I wouldn't be totally clueless. And that's how I feel about a lot of RPG theory discussions I see. And theory was one of my favorite parts about anthropology!

 

[Campbell]

So, I'm a physicist by training. This is a field that is immersed in deep, elaborate, arcane mathematics, inscrutable to most mortal eyes.

One of the greatest minds of the field, the man who invented Quantum Chromodynamics, Richard Feynman, famously noted that if you cannot explain a topic in simple, easy to understand language, you probably don't understand it that well yourself.

Using layers of jargon with the uninitiated is the antithesis of successful communication.

This isn't about communicating with the uninitiated though. It's about communicating with people that are deeply steeped in their own particular jargon and are insisting that you must adopt their jargon to communicate with them.

 

[FrogReaver]

This isn't about communicating with the uninitiated though. It's about communicating with people that are deeply steeped in their own particular jargon and are insisting that you must adopt their jargon to communicate with them.

Oh the irony.

 

[Umbran]

I've never really thought about it that way, but I think this Feynman guy is onto something.

He also observed that one of the best ways to learn a subject it to kind of know it, and then to teach it. Having to restate it so that someone else will understand forces you to process it more deeply and completely.

In the hard sciences, nobody teaches you how to teach. If you are a Teaching Assistant, they just toss you into the deep end of the pool. The first lecture class they gave me, they just handed me the text and said, "You've taken this course, so you know what's in the curriculum. Teach it." Feynman was a great support during that experience.

I'd still be teaching now, if academia paid anywhere near what I make in my current job.