colaco's blurblog

Like I'm Five
Monday May 5^th, 2014 at 2:50 AM

'Am I taking care of you? I have a thesis to write!' 'My parents are at their house; you visited last--' 'No, no, explain like you're five.'

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4 public comments

Romanikque

3634 days ago

Leave Denzel alone! Leave him alone!

Baltimore, MD

udont

3635 days ago

I think it is great phrase to use and I am not going to hesitate using it. I don't think it makes me look dumb.

sulrich

3636 days ago

it's nice to see at least a hint of backlash against the dumbing down of everything.

nickoneill

3636 days ago

Disagree entirely. A lot of ELI5 is not dumbing down, it's dejargonizing topics that are hard to understand without significant experience in the field.

benzado

3636 days ago

Can you explain "dejargonizing" like I'm five?

hobbified

3636 days ago

@nickoneill: which creates more people who falsely believe they understand, but not more understanding.

stefanetal

3636 days ago

"creates more people who falsely believe they understand." Yes! Management by powerpoint illusion of understanding.

DiscoStud

3635 days ago

I am not sure I understand why people are upset at the idea of trying to help explain complex topics to people who might not understand every aspect of it. For every person who "falsely believes they understand" a topic might there be people who are more engaged and interested in a topic that had previously been obtuse to them?

stefanetal

3635 days ago

It's the 'things should be as simple as possible and no simpler' issue --- you can be pushed into 'fake explanations' that are misleading, especially if you need to get something approved/sold.

benzado

3635 days ago

I don't think anybody is upset about trying to effectively communicate complex topics. What's problematic is "like I'm five", which is sometimes the right level of complexity, but more often not. Depending on the context is can be mildly insulting to one or both parties, and it also suggests that the burden is entirely on the person giving the explanation, rather than the listener making an effort to understand.

discostu

3635 days ago

Except as nickoneil points out, most explanations on r/eli5 are not actually for 5 year olds and mostly de-jargonized and accessible. They may lack a lot of the subject's nuisance, but they are not insulting.

colaco

3637 days ago

Alt-text: "'Am I taking care of you? I have a thesis to write!' 'My parents are at their house; you visited last--' 'No, no, explain like you're five.'"

Amora, Setubal, Portugal

Career
Monday March 24^th, 2014 at 3:52 AM

They'd convince me to come out of retirement for one last job: biting into a giant lump of slightly soft wax a couple of times.

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2 public comments

colaco

3679 days ago

Alt-text: "They'd convince me to come out of retirement for one last job: biting into a giant lump of slightly soft wax a couple of times."

Amora, Setubal, Portugal

Types of Editors
Wednesday March 12^th, 2014 at 3:34 AM

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4 public comments

Dadster

3688 days ago

Missing category: http://youtu.be/8krq5V1C03I

New Hampshire

brico

3690 days ago

Brooklyn, NY

istoner

3690 days ago

An emacs joke AND a Machine of Death joke! A great start to the day...

Saint Paul, MN, USA

colaco

3691 days ago

Alt-text: "m-x machineofdeath-mode
"

Amora, Setubal, Portugal

undefeated
Thursday March 6^th, 2014 at 2:02 AM

Abstruse Goose

i_know_someone_like_this_but_im_pretty_sure_she_just_does_it_to_torture_me

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1 public comment

tante

3699 days ago

Undefeated

Berlin/Germany

Land Mammals
Wednesday March 5^th, 2014 at 1:36 AM

Bacteria still outweigh us thousands to one--and that's not even counting the several pounds of them in your body.

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6 public comments

stefanetal

3697 days ago

I find this depressing.

Northern Virginia

crowmagnumb

3698 days ago

Amazing graph

Portland, OR

lamontcg

3698 days ago

If they animated this starting around 100,000 years ago I suspect I would get kind of depressed...

CarlEdman

3697 days ago

I'd be proud.

colaco

3698 days ago

Alt-text: "Bacteria still outweigh us thousands to one--and that's not even counting the several pounds of them in your body."

Amora, Setubal, Portugal

Frequency
Monday February 17^th, 2014 at 2:57 AM

This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.

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13 public comments

jchristopherslice

3704 days ago

amazing

Clemson, SC

Chachafance

3710 days ago

Genius!

Eufaula, AL

chrisminett

3710 days ago

Superb

Milton Keynes, UK

brico

3712 days ago

What universe does he live in that has so few bike thefts?

Brooklyn, NY

tomazed

3712 days ago

Awsome!

shamgar_bn

3713 days ago

You had me at the blinkers...

Wake Forest, North Carolina

rgsunico

3713 days ago

Wow.

thelem

3713 days ago

That's taught me that nearly every time someone edits wikipedia, someone dies. I'm going to be much more careful with my wikipedia edits!

Brighton, UK

joshhsoj1902

3713 days ago

nicely done!

Ottawa

dc3

3714 days ago

brilliant

Carlsbad, CA

traggett

3714 days ago

Title: "This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops."

Hong Kong

colaco

3714 days ago