Fundamental idea from information theory: information is proportional to degree of surprise. The more strongly you expected an answer, the less information it conveyed.
Show this thread
Surprise is also the goal in essay writing: http://paulgraham.com/essay.html
-
-
Good new music also partially violates expectations. But the surprise can't be too far removed from the expectation, otherwise the interpreter will fail to infer their association. To feel like surprisingly new reggae music, it can't be too far removed from older reggae music.
-
Surprise is also essential to good jokes
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Yes! The hard part with writing is that you have to maximize information (~surprise), minimize noise, but then also get the right balance of redundancy so that people really absorb the message.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
“With the result that writing is made to seem boring and pointless. Who cares about symbolism in Dickens? Dickens himself would be more interested in an essay about color or baseball.” Why do the critics make it their mission to ruin an experience for an artist?
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
That surprise is also a signal that your writing is valuable to a particular reader, according to Larry McEnerney at UChicago:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFwVf5a3pZM …
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Humor also seems to have the same principle
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.