Explanations are value laden
Timothy Pratley recently wrote about the pursuit of meaning on Civitas. Before that; I argued that Civitas is a great place to grow explanations together.
These two messages are connected. Today, I explore how.
What is worthwhile to explain? Anything? No.
I can explain the number of grains of sand on a beach. That explanation is not interesting compared to what I could be explaining. I would rather explain how numbers with units of measure helps you write clearer code. How you can use a drop of science to spice up your world of software development. How a sliver of programming can help you move the world as a designer.
I feel zero need to explain how to “nudge” people into making decisions they do not want to make. I feel zero need to add more mess, chaos, advertisement and coercion into an already confusing and coercive world. Why am I bombarded with messaging to change my behavior every place I see? Why does this happen even when I use services I pay for? I despise this trend.
So what? Then what? What should we do instead?
Just as the will to explain comes from your values, you can value great explanations. Instead of consuming coercive messaging, consider exploring. Later, share the bits and pieces you discovered. What was your journey? Can you explain what you discovered?
I spoke to a friend about great explanations last weekend. “We need to explain together!”, I said. “That is what it means to be human!” “What about art?”, he said. “That’s a very good question”.
After a brief detour into “art as digestion”, we returned to explanations. Science is the pursuit of better explanations.
“But science is scary!”, he retorted at once.
No! Let us not fear science. Let us respect science and respect great scientists. But let us forever not fear science. We explain to each other all the time. And those explanations will help others. They will help ourselves.
I value great explanations. I value the pursuit of great explanations. And I find it worthwhile to pursue great explanations with others.
I may grasp something in a brief moment. By turning that understanding into an explanation, the understanding can outlive the moment. Knowing I can return to that understanding, I can move on.