[mtippett]

For me, it's all about coherent externalization.

Your brain takes shortcuts, you can think you understand what is going on, it's only when you need to communicate it you realize how many shortcuts in hallucinations of understanding there are in your head.

So for those with imgur accounts... I have a challenge for you.

Most people will know how to ride a bike, will know a bike when they see it.

But can you communicate what a bike looks like (in a diagram)? 90% of you won't be able to.

Grab a piece of paper, and draw a bike. Post it to imgur, and post a link to it below (please don't be a troll).

Then take a look at https://www.gianlucagimini.it/portfolio-item/velocipedia/

Until you try to communicate a concept or idea in words or diagrams, the chances are you are hallucinating your understanding.

[xeonmc]

https://imgur.com/a/A9NwpLk

[fnordpiglet]

I know folks that control for this by writing a fail fast implementation. I do it by talking it through. There’s a lot of modalities in the human experience and different people are adapted to different modalities. Building a strong complete team involves covering all the modalities and letting them work the way they work best, and as a team. A team that can write, speak, draw, produce functional demos, etc, is better than the one that can write.

[tstrimple]

Based on what I saw on that website, only a handful of people couldn't draw a bike well enough to get the point across. A few more than that posted designs which can't function (fixed front wheel), but are easily recognizable as a bike. Most are fine. Certainly not supporting that 90% of people won't be able to do so. A diagram isn't a spec. It's designed to convey higher level ideas of which most of these bike illustrations are fine for.

[leroy-is-here]

I’m not sure I understand your point with the bikes. Communication , in writing or speaking, is really just sharing ideas. I saw a lot of drawings of bikes in your link. Are you just saying that people lose the details which ultimately don’t matter? I don’t think of “chainstays” when picturing a bicycle.

[jxramos]

they may not even be hallucinations, just short circuit paths that have embedded in your conceptualization of stuff that they've become unspoken deeply furrowed premises long trusted and never thought to be questioned. Surfacing unspoken and unwritten premises is something I find exciting, really invites getting at the root of stuff.