I went to the doctor’s recently. The nurse asked me if I had any hobbies — I guess because it was a mental health check up? — and I said I was making videos and stuff around ethics in tech (still workshopping my elevator pitch, can you tell?).
Her: “There are ethical issues in tech?” Me: “Yes, there are loads.”
The appointment moved on.
This anecdote is to say: I often struggle to say what I want to concisely and with the minimum amount of background reading required, and without being flustered by either my own or other people’s gaps in the material discussed.
As much as people like to say that if we all read the Marx, Lorde and whatever else is on our collective “complete and total galaxy-wide justice” syllabus the world would be a much better place, seeing as it hasn’t happened yet I don’t see it happening for a long time? So I prefer to meet people where they are.
why hasn’t it happened?
- people are tired
- people are broke (no time or money to be spent reading things that don’t bring them joy or immediate reward)
- it can feel boring and thankless
- the people you want to discuss new ideas with aren’t always the most forgiving of people new to the idea and their use of terminology
- huge barriers to entry with a lot of foundational ethics/philosophy/politics/economics/etc texts; jargon can be a huge blocker
what would help?
- stop focusing so much on people having the exact correct phrasing for things; ask more questions if you can. if you can’t that’s extremely valid
- if you’re trying to change minds maybe focus on making things digestible; not about being simplified just broken into more manageable chunks. what’s key knowledge to understand some other concept? is the piece of jargon helpful for that, or is it obscuring complexity or nuance?
This piece is part of my attempt at Alphabet Superset, a “6-month” creative challenge (I’m going to pass a year in September — with a long break! — and the creator of the challenge hasn’t finished either). Other posts so far: abolition, bump, boost, culture, discussion, english, formulaic, gone, home and immortality.