Writing

It is only the man who writes absolutely for the sake of the subject that writes anything worth reading.

Those who have thought before they begin to write. They write solely because they have thought; and they are rare.

Only extremely few of them think about the subject itself.

Write only to change the way your readers think. Otherwise just stop.

Do not write to show what you know or what you think. (like that fucking Russian faggot in .nl - Haskellrank)

Write to profoundly change reader’s view of the world. Write to hack the reader. (change reader’s mind - the deep structure).

Explanation is usefull only within the context of Value (to the reader) and persuasion (changing the reader’s mind).

Verbalization is a process of encoding of an intuition or an insight in a human language for verbal (oral) communication. Articulation of an intuition or an insight is the first step to capture it.

Due to ambiguity of human languages a well-defined context is required. Basically, it is a dictionary (or a shared environment of bindings) which defines meaning of each word. Different aspects of reality it is said to form different contexts.

The notion of a well-defined shared context is crucial for successful communication. Without an appropriate context a message cannot be decoded by receiver (the deep structure cannot be transmitted without loss of meaning ). The meaning of a transmitter will differ from what receiver has.

The better way of communication is to use a written form of language. Writing is a transmission of information over time (information being encoded for transmission). Have an Idea? - write it down first. Nothing clarifies the mind better than writing. It allows to re-create the shared context before describing an idea. Define (in a written form) the shared context to use in communication Use your writing process to help yourself think.

Writing is the most efficient way to help your thinking. Articulating or verbalizing intuitions and insights about the world inside your head as merely thoughts floating around is not enough. Writing gives a form to thoughts. It formalizes thoughts.

Write the idea down, check if it is still good after one week.

Short, but informative, include most relevant key words and concepts.

Just mention what branches of math or general knowledge you are using. The reader does not have to be familiar with each theorem you are going to invoke but need only be able to understand what it means when you quote it. (Why are you invoking something.)

Introduce terminology gradually, on site, as the text unfolds. Do not place it in the one preliminary overwhelming section. Weave The required information into the text as it goes along.

Long words will not impress your customers or help your writing style.

Avoid jargon and legalistic words, and always explain any technical terms you have to use.

Keep your sentence length down to an average of 15 to 20 words.

Try to stick to one main idea in a sentence.

Use simple active verbs as much as possible. Say ‘we will do it’ rather than ‘it will be done by us’ or ’it shall be done’.

Imagine you are talking to your reader.

Write sincerely, personally, in a style that is suitable and with the right tone of voice.

And always check that your writing is clear, helpful, human and polite.

Omit redundant words. Optimize to a local optimum. Where is nothing more to remove. Like poetry.

Formal definition (for a formal mathematical model). Math is the formal language of describing aspects of what is. So a formal model is always possible, given that it indeed captures an aspect of what is (not some abstract bullshit).

hierarchical data tree-like structures 2d (tables) use links! in org-mode and Trac use code-blocks use small files (like separate modules)