Disclaimer: This post is about a curiosity on my part. I'm not talking to anyone in particular, so if you are guilty of doing what I'm about to talk about, please do not take this personally. It's not about you.
What I am curious about is why people keep asking for things to be explained "as if for a five year old."
How is this supposed to be helpful?
A five year old child has no frame of reference to make sense of the kind of work we do as developers. Even if someone could explain software development concepts and technologies in a way that a five year old could understand, how would that help any other developer?
How about we ask people to explain a technology so that a high-school student could understand it? At least a high-school student would have a frame of reference regarding computers and what they can do from a user's standpoint, and some of them have even taken basic programming classes.
I get the concept of being able to explain something really complicated in simple terms, and I think that is a helpful idea. But trying to take something down to the level of a five year old is, at least in my opinion, a bit of a stretch.
"Explain brain surgery to a five year old."
"Sometimes people have broken brains. So a brain surgeon opens up that person's head and changes their brain so that it isn't broken anymore."
OK, assuming a five year old knows what a brain is, that might help them understand brain surgery, but how will that help a budding medical student?
I think it's about the same as trying to explain software development concepts and technologies at a five year old level. It might help someone understand something at the most basic level, but how will that help a budding software developer?
Anyway, that is just my curiosity topic today. If you think explaining things at a five-year old level is helpful, please feel free to sound off in the comments.
Thanks, and have a great day.
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