Man I Don't Even Know

[rynling]

The problem with me being a writer is that I'm too stupid to understand 99.99% of things that happen in this world. Sometimes I read science writing in particular where I'm like, "I admire the craft of your sentence structure and the precision of your vocabulary, but I have no idea what you're talking about." Instead of being able to write, I often wish I had an actually useful skill, like fixing cars or installing drywall, but alas.

ETA: The context for this is me spending two hours trying to figure out carbon offsetting, and specifically why it's a scam. I understand the bits about money laundering just fine, but I don't understand how the science is supposed to work. I can't even figure out whether in fact the science was ever supposed to work tbh.

Anyway here's a random photo of some nice apple pie, which is about the level I'm on right now.

Comments

[lagertha_the_warrior]

Haha I think the same sometimes. I am fine with academic writing/reading. But other things are hard to understand? I thoroughly enjoy science fiction novels, I think because my science-y knowledge is so limited and novels kind of dumb it down a bit for me. It makes me feel "smart".

Your pie looks nice

[rynling]

There's so much knowledge in the world. And that's great, but also, it's so much.

Back at the beginning of 2024 I wanted to write a science fiction story about nanotechnology, so I started doing research on what the technology actually entails. This project went nowhere fast. Even after two weeks of reading for more than an hour every day, I still couldn't differentiate between what is "real" (ie, what we're actually capable of achieving), what is speculative, what is PR smoke and mirrors for large research universities, and what is an appropriation of the term used in marketing to sell, like, high-end sports shoes.

In the end I just looked at the TV Tropes page for "nanomachines" and decided that the entire concept is silly goofy clown hours. If I can't do better than Hideo Kojima in Metal Gear Solid, what's the point.

I am in awe of science fiction writers who manage to make these stories work, honestly.

[shinon]

Oh, I feel this. I was once doing research for a story set on a Mississippi steamboat, and gave up when it became clear I did not understand steam, engines, boats, or the Mississippi.

[rynling]

I also do not understand any of these things. 🥂✨

As a reader, I'm very forgiving of writers who prioritize story over historical detail. As a writer, however, the struggle is real.

[lassarina]

I think with science writing in particular, you get a combination of "many tech people do not have and do not want to learn the skills of communicating with an audience not already thoroughly grounded in the subject material" (why would they do that, icky soft skills aren't science) so their writing is operating on a number of assumptions that are true only for a small subset of people; and also, what you said above about smoke and mirrors PR for VC startups and research universities is very accurate. The author's goal may not be to explain or teach; it may be to show off their research and math chops as an addendum to a CV or something.

In other words I don't think it's your intelligence that's the problem....but now I want apple pie.

[rynling]

All of this is true; but also, I think it might just be an issue with reading long articles online. The article in particular that got me is this one...

The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/the-great-cash-for-carbon-hustle

...which isn't the sort of "science writing" you've described, exactly, but it is 12k+ words long. I use Firefox's reader view to bypass pop-ups and ads, but still. That's a lot. Once I'm past 5k words, brain fog becomes an issue, especially during a discussion of complicated and unfamiliar concepts.

Instead of assigning final papers for my classes, I've started to assign "research articles." The assignment is that the article needs to be informative and well-researched; but, if it goes over 1k words, you fail. I feel like that sort of precision isn't taught in college classes, but it's super important for the sort of nonfiction writing that's actually useful to people.

[lassarina]

Okay, that's a great assignment. You're right that it's a precision that's actually useful.

I have to admit I don't read long articles on my computer; I generally throw them into Pocket, which syncs with my e-reader, so I can read them curled up in whatever soft spot is appealing today. I realize I'm a weirdo but I hate doing everything on my phone.

[rynling]

I realize I'm a weirdo but I hate doing everything on my phone.

You and me can be weirdos together.

I'm still holding onto an old iPad mini that I use for longread articles and AO3. I feel like fic writers especially deserve the dignity of the full e-reader treatment.

[lassarina]

I use my iPad for a lot of digital gaming books; I feel you on that. (I have a System TM for longfic - 5k plus - where I have an extension for Calibre that I can feed URLs into and it will check for updates and then transfer them to my e-reader, so I have a huge library of, uh, the 1100+ items in my Marked For Later to choose from.)

[lassarina]

Also, thank you for the link, that's fascinating. I had a vague idea of the scam/money laundering aspect, but like you, not the details, and now I do. Wild.