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Discussion on: The Dark Side Of The Magic

 
stereobooster profile image
stereobooster • Edited

Are you a president of the programming field, so you can alone decide who can be in the field and who can't?

I tried to illustrate what the gatekeeping is, because I suspected that you did it (gatekeeping phrases) two times in a row, and fail to see what is wrong with that.

Apparently this was a problem of phrasing. To be fair I was not the only one who failed to correctly understand your phrasing. You used "I never said that" two times in comments for this article e.g. your phrasing was misinterpreted and you need to explain it with extended comment

It sounds like you're saying that people are not welcome in the programming field if they dislike logic. Is that what you meant?

Yes agree with this phrasing. Will use something similar next time

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codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald • Edited

Well, to be fair, I'll monitor how many people continue to express concern about meaning.

The difficulty with approaching a topic this sensitive, you understand, is that one will inevitably get detracting comments from people who only skimmed the article, and either deliberately or unintentionally missed the point. I've had it happen with far less controversial topics, wherein someone actually accused me of making a point I'd explicitly stated in the article I wasn't making.

Not to say my phrasing can't be improved, but on the basis of the above, I never take the first couple "misunderstandings" seriously. Once it becomes clearer, I look into adjusting if necessary. That's important to maintaining sanity, as those individuals determined to misinterpret will do so no matter what is said.

In any case, I tweaked the last sentence to be a little less "misunderstandable".

(Also, thanks for being open to learning how to interact more constructively.)

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stereobooster profile image
stereobooster

It's up to you to decide, but people will skim articles this is natural thing for people to do. There are way to much information, people try to understand if it is even worth to read the piece or not. 10% of people are dyslexic (they have extra troubles reading complex texts). It means that a lot of people will take away from your article wrong message ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald • Edited

I'm also dyslexic, and a traumatic brain injury survivor who had to relearn how to read. I'm a professional writer with a college background in communication, and I've mentored ESL students, disabled students, and the whole gamut of reading capabilities. I believe in clarity in writing, but I also believe the reader has a responsibility as well.

TL;DR is not a positive life strategy. Incidentally, that was also a tangential subpoint of the article. Skimming is fine in its place, but if someone is going to take the time to comment, share, or apply what they read, they should first take the time to read throughly.