How do we fight circumlocution in non-fiction?
No single idea or discovery needs more than 30 pages.
Sure history books should be huge.
BUT WHY DOES ALL FUCKING BOOKS READ AS IF THE READER HAS ZERO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE TOPIC
>page 1
>the brain is an organ in your head
>page 50
>you use your eyes to see
>page 1000
>...repetitive seizures are artificially induced in animals, hippocampal damage is a frequent result. This may be a consequence of the concentration of excitable glutamate receptors in the hippocampus. Hyperexcitability can lead to cytotoxicity and cell death.
>>9934449
ass
>>9934449
Pinker writes for a general audience. He isn't a French pseud who's trying to impress and confuse American undergrads, he's a specialist trying to explain complex ideas to laypeople in as clear and accurate a way as possible. This requires simplicity
>>9934480
Pinker is actually someone who does stick to the point most of the time, and being a linguist he knows how to use words.
>he's a specialist trying to explain complex ideas to laypeople in as clear and accurate a way as possible.
Why I used him in op.
Why aren't everyone like Steven Pinker?
Sure better angels of our nature could be 400 pages shorter. But his other stuff is ok.
>>9934449
just started The Road to Serfdom by Hayek...
after about 30 pages of introductions and prefaces and more introductions, and another 20 of chapter 1, nothing has been said beyond "socialism inevitably results in totalitarianism. for real guise". The entire argument of the book probably could have been wrapped up by now.
pisses me off. Most pages i read in total are completely unnecessary to communicating the point. there's nothing i hate more than unsubstantive filler, just give me the fucking information
>How do we fight circumlocution in non-fiction?
I don't know, here are the biggest offenders in my opinion:
Thorstein Veblen
Henry George
Winston Churchill
>>9935877
I agree with your sentiment entirely. There is something about some late Austrian authors which screams political rhetoric, and that pisses me off to no end because I'm supposed to be reading a non-partial piece of work directed to inform, not a biased pamphlet on why I should support the cause of democracy against Socialism,
Then again most late Austrian works in the mid 20th century were written under the tense guise of the Iron Curtain and tensions were high, so some leniency could be given.
No communism is not the answer, especially if you have a very restricted view of economics like Mises, but some form of socialized principles like that proposed by Henry George or Silvio Gesell might be acceptable.
>>9935902
I think it has a little thing to do with their constant persecution and intellectual abandonment. But fuck em right?
>>9934480
Pinker oversimplifies most of what he's talking about. Read him if you want to develop autism
>>9935971
Joke's on you I'm already autistic
>>9935987
M-me too
>>9934449
You don't have to sit around on your ass all day and read every goddamn thing that's been written by people who are supposedly "good".
Use your time wisely, read the parts you need and want to read, don't read the rest. Some people need more of that text, or want it for whatever reason.
Y'all autistmo as fuck.
apparently, pic related says he's never read a book that was over 200 pages long
>>9936345
Where did you hear that? He's written books that are over 500 pages long
>>9936363
but he didn't read it
>>9936345
Highly doubtful. Perhaps never all at once, as he says once he grows bored with something he jumps to another book and then comes back to it later.
I like Pinker's books. Though I dislike his politics and will never touch the book "The Better Angels of Our Future". I can agree with him on free speech. His newest book is not something I would like, but which I'm probably going to read to get a view on the New Atheist/nu-rationalists.
>>9934449
That's why the more you read, you read faster, you skip shits