
“Just” (2015) - ingve
http://bradfrost.com/blog/post/just/
======
mrguyorama
As someone not birthed in the unix land, I find this a lot there. "vim/emacs
is easy, 'just' learn forty pages of shortcuts and magical incantations and
also completely rethink the metaphors you use to interact with text"

"Commandline is way better, 'just' memorize every important command needed to
do basic things and all the switches you may ever want"

I think people in general just forget the learning cliff inherent in many
things. It's like we don't want to remember or acknowledge that we once
struggled with something.

------
sixhobbits
"Just", "Obviously", "Basically", "Essentially".

Just remove these words from most prose. I essentially do this to my prose and
when I'm editing others'. It basically doesn't change the meaning, and
obviously improves the style and tone.

If it were obvious, you wouldn't be saying it. If you can dismiss it with
"just", you're probably being too defensive.

Respect your reader. Always. These words do not convey resepct. Remove them.
Your readers will love you for it, and that should be your goal.

------
elmigranto
"Striking a balance" and "not making too many assumptions" requires making
assumptions about where is "balance" and what is "too many" — and we are back
at assuming exact same things as before.

What the article amounts to is "use language I like better in your
documentation". Albeit understandable, that is wierd position to me, though,
perhaps there is some science on writing techniques and language use in order
to make your material less discouraging and "easier emotionally" for people
(similar to the famous example of positive vs. negative feedback in learning).

------
otakucode
I guess I can understand interpreting 'just' in that way... but why would a
person choose that interpretation? How about "This is the only thing you need
to do, there is not additional steps after these"?

------
vokep
Just relax and don't read into things so much. :/

~~~
elmigranto
Author's remarks are somewhat valid in that certain language formulates
certain feelings and general emotional state in people (which is a part of how
and why fiction works). Having "easy" and "just" shattered when confronted
with reality and not its description by the professionals "on the inside",
generates strongrer negative response that it would otherwise.

However, article's argumentation and suggestions on improving the situation
make me think that author does not fully realize this or fails to state the
problem clearly. Issue lies with the words used and not their meaning or
omitting explanations for things that are assumed to be understood by target
audience.

------
xupybd
Just don’t worry about it. Seriously most of programming is easy once you know
the correct way to do it. Learning is the hard part. Don’t read into it,
celebrate that there’s an easy solution to your problem.

