"Unconsciously aware of the power" is one of the hot words on the Internet nowadays. It means that although you can't understand it, you still feel that it is very powerful.

I don’t know why it still feels severe? Because only if you don’t understand it will you feel it’s awesome. If you understand it, you may not feel it’s awesome, but may think it’s “bullshit”! Most of the time, "unknown" is the cause and condition of "awareness". The two are causal, not parallel.

Usually, articles that make people feel "unclear" generally have the following two characteristics:

1. Involving areas unfamiliar to readers

2. Not Speaking in human terms

The first reason for readers' ignorance is that they are unfamiliar with the field covered by the article and do not have an in-depth understanding of it. Therefore, they are usually easily shocked by seemingly profound discussions. Once you know little about the field, it is difficult to use critical thinking to consider and consider the other party's arguments and opinions, and thus you will be led by the other party's lead. As a result, your mind becomes a racecourse for other people's ideas.

The characteristic of not speaking human language is that the article is full of terms that seem very profound to laymen, such as Maxwell’s demon, Feynman diagram, heat death, Dunbar number, lipstick effect, and diminishing marginal utility. Effect, long tail effect, Barnum effect, Hedgehog Law, conservative liberalism, communitarianism, atomistic individualism, ontology, existentialism, other, moral law, for-itself, constructivism, deconstruction, three-dimensionality ism, extended phenotype... These terms from physics, economics, politics, philosophy, psychology and other disciplines can easily stun the average reader, and then the reader will take it for granted that the author is an expert in the field. And it is very likely that these authors are just "civilians" in the eyes of real experts.

In addition to using terminology, "Unknown Jue Li" articles also like to quote famous quotes, and often mention some old people and great figures, such as Socrates once said, Locke said, Descartes Er, Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Freud, Comte, Jung, Smith, Hayek, and even Qiao Bangzhu...

Readers have already I'm confused by the terminology. Good guy, here comes another celebrity. Look, the author is so awesome. Not only does he know so many terms, but he also has so many celebrities who endorse him. This article is "blessed" by famous quotes, and the author's image is It's even bigger and more powerful. Whether or not you think it's "powerful" is no longer a question. Now it's straight to the quantification of "how powerful".

There is a "Halo Effect" in psychology, which means that in interpersonal interactions, people will first draw an overall impression based on some local cognitions and judgments, and then spread them. That is to say, they often overgeneralize. If a person is marked as good, he will be enveloped in a positive and positive aura and given the quality of everything is good; if a person is marked as bad, he will be enveloped in a negative and negative halo. , and are considered to have various bad qualities.

Those articles that are "unclearly powerful" mean that readers form a halo effect of "the author is very powerful" based on terminology (or formulas and other professional-looking means), so that as a whole, they think "the author is very powerful" "Read this article based on this premise and accept the views and conclusions conveyed by the author in full, without scrutinizing whether the logical chain between these terms or famous sayings and the arguments for the views is established.

Internet influencers are also a typical product of the "halo effect". Usually these big Vs are experts in a certain field. They may have unique insights in these fields, and they often talk about broader fields. However, it is likely that their knowledge of these fields is very limited, and they may even only know about these fields. However, they have glanced at it in an article and heard a little bit at a dinner party, but due to the "halo effect", fans tend to believe that the insights of big Vs are profound, that they are energetic and intelligent. He knows astronomy from above and geography from below.

This kind of overgeneralized subjective impression based on the "halo" often leads to identity bias. Because you are a big V, you are profound. And if you're a showbiz star, you'd say, Tsk! An actor comes to mix in the public topic. Again, I will boycott your movies/TV/songs!

Going back to the "unknown" type of article, some people may retort that different people have different understanding abilities. If you can't understand it, it doesn't mean that I am playing with concepts, dropping my book bag, or pretending to be sophisticated. ah? My response is that it depends on the intended reading context and target audience of this article.

If your article is for Peer Review, it is normal to use professional terms, concepts, and models. In fact, don’t people in the industry just play tricks on each other? If you organize your thoughts by yourself, write some reading notes, etc., and the concepts are not fully developed and the discussion ideas are personal, it will be easy for others to understand even though they cannot understand it, which is excusable. But if your intended reading target is ordinary readers without professional background, I'm sorry, but others can't understand it, which only means that you are not good enough.

Not all articles involving professional terminology are obscure and difficult to understand. As long as you clarify the core concepts of the terminology involved, briefly explain it in plain and concise terms (and then use human words again), and then give some appropriate examples. Example, I believe others can still understand it.

In other words, it is not that terms cannot be used, but they should be used with caution (for example, a certain concept is very abstract and general and is crucial to the development of the discussion), and attention should be paid to the way it is used, even if the reader skips Some theoretical explanations still do not affect the overall grasp of the article. In this way, the concepts are the icing on the cake rather than a hindrance to the reader.

So, if you see "unclear" articles in the future, don't be frightened. It's very likely that you can't understand it just because the author doesn't have the ability to explain one thing clearly. Lier, it is even possible that this article is simply "bullshit".

2014-6-13