
When Analogies Fail - smollett
http://www.chronicle.com/article/When-Analogies-Fail/237716
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chakalakasp
This article is a bit like a graduate student's deconstruction of the feminist
themes in Breaking Bad. At first glace it sounds tedious and misguided, but
the more you dig into it the more you realize the author is just desperate to
please his department heads so that he can get his degree and find employment
at another institution where he can finally force other people to pull their
hair out trying to invent new and unique forms of utter bullshit to please his
whims.

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Kapura
The distinction between analogies-as-tools of understanding vs. analogies-as-
entertainment is fascinating, and not something that I'd ever consciously
thought about before. However, I have certainly seen the separation between
the "aha" moment of being able to perceive a system in terms of another I am
more familiar with vs. complaining about a codebase by comparing it to sitting
with a bony ass on a hard bench.

It also reminded me of another recent hacker news submission [0] that talked
about the importance of spacial intelligence in predicting which children will
be math prodigies. I think being able to create physical metaphors for
abstract concepts, whether consciously or unconsciously, makes total sense as
an indicator of intelligence because we have existed in a physical world for
far longer than we've been thinking abstract thoughts. Our brains are hard-
wired for these sorts of analogies because understanding physical space
intuitively was crucial for survival.

The pop culture type of analogy which the author was less fond of are
enjoyable not of the epiphanic nature of deep insight, but for the buzz of
novelty. It becomes easy to lock into a mental groove when thinking about
politics or airplanes or dating or whatever, and the comedy comes from
exposing a superficially logical connection to something on an entirely
different track.

I do think there's a spectrum, though. Really good comedians can both
enlighten /and/ entertain.

[0] [http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons-
fro...](http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons-
from-a-45-year-study-of-super-smart-children-1.20537)

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xapata
This is simply a criticism of audiences for wanting to be entertained rather
than enlightened. The author claims that the internet is the cause.

The downvote puzzles me. Do you not think this is a fair summary of the
article?

~~~
kurthr
It seems relevant for HN because, it's like the overused "Hollywood movie
meets Blockbuster movie" trope for an elevator pitch... and that format gets
used for start-ups as well!

Although the person listening thinks they understand, mostly they have just
inserted their own popular misunderstanding of the two
movies/markets/businesses into the description.

(sorry for using a simile)

------
ronilan
An analogy is like comparing two things that are alike in some way, when it is
clear they are not alike in other ways.

~~~
wruza
It's also always funny when someone tries to defeat your argument by
continuing your analogy to its weak point. Analogy cannot fail, it is just a
shortcut for a quicker discussion.

