My IoB post has attracted the most ever comments along the lines of "why is this so long, tldr <favorite compression>". It's interesting. Kinda fascinating. We've been in tldr/compression mode so long, we've forgotten that elaboration has its own motivating logic and demand.
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This post is in the old refactored-perceptions style rather than the new constructions-in-magical-thinking style. The modus operandi *is* to elaborate along a new vector after compressing along an old one.
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I used to beat myself up when a smartass friend used to summarize my points
Then eventually I realized - the summarizers only ever show up after the fact. You never see them summarizing and popularizing these ideas beforehand
Someone has to bash thru the undergrowth first
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The chronic summarizers are always trying to collect itemized insights. “How can I cut this essay down into something digestible for my itty bitty brain-tummy?”
Fuck it I don’t care about being nice about this
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when you "take away" a thing an author says, you get a single itemized bit of value
when you "take away" an author's *way of seeing*, you get an entire universe of it
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The compressed versions are also invariably legibilized-lossy. So the expanded versions serve as a source for alternative compressions, some of which may be incompatible. The compressions people have proposed for my IoB thesis are NOT all the same, which is revealing.
Yeah, as I selected the word "compression" to translate to "fellow tech-minded nerds", so all "compressions" are poetic metaphors, derivative pop art adaptations, translations, filtered through usually unwitting cultural biases to serve as a hyperlink headline for a culture
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