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Discussion on: Explain Five Like I am Five

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tinmanjk profile image
Ivan Petrov

I agree with your last statement. My point was that many of the "like I am five" explanations do a poorer job of teaching the concept by sticking only to "childish" concepts.

In you example about "dependency inversion". I am gonna assume you are a programmer, not a five year-old. This helps me make assumptions of what you might know and makes my job of explaining much easier because I can build on common ground. Otherwise I have to impose on you MY understanding of what a five year-old would comprehend without taking into account the available information -> you are a programmer.

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scotthannen profile image
Scott Hannen

Did you think it was literal, as if someone was going to explain a programming concept to a five year old child?

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay

There are a number of people who do take it literally. Sometimes it's a harmless conceit; other times it leads to tortured metaphors which do a markedly worse job of furthering the asker's understanding of the topic than does a simple but still-technical breakdown taking for granted a minimal shared understanding of the context.