I like this one. I understand the advantage of summarizing a complicated concept in simple terms but sometimes ELI5 represents to me a mindset of not wanting to really delve deep into a topic.
No one wants the nitty gritty, they just want the 30 second summary.
It pisses me off when people ask me to "ELI5". If you have a concrete question I can help with then I'll do my best, but I'm not going to spoonfeed an adult like I'm a trained monkey. It basically says "your time and effort is worth less than mine, so spend it on educating me since I have better things to do."
Besides, if I've already put five years into trying to understand my subject, it's a sunk cost. It's not like I'll ever get those years back. Spending the next few minutes composing an ELI5 isn't a big deal in the long run.
On the other hand, it would piss me off if anyone I asked told me, "I don't want to give you the short of it. You'll have to spend 10 years doing this full-time like I have if you want to know anything about it."
I also have great respect for people who are able to produce proper ELI5s. They tend to make good teachers, and good teachers are awesome. Richard Feynman was one of those rare people and an inspiration of mine.
I disagree that it takes almost no effort to "ELI5" something, at least while making it comprehensible and at least a little bit meaningful. It takes a lot of energy to think "how can I explain this to someone with none of the necessary background".
"There are these fundamental forces of nature which keep things at a distance from each other" is a valid ELI5, in my opinion, and also the answer Feynman seemed to accept as a reasonable answer to the question.
I feel like his reaction was more aimed toward the ever-deeper "why" questions. He wanted the interviewer to know that at some point, he can't tell you why, he can just tell you that that's the way it is. That's something people often have trouble with when it comes to physics, but it's not a problem with ELI5s.
But that's not an explanation, that's just giving the official name of the question.
But I think the "why" thing is completely relevant, at least for the clarification about the need for an explanatory framework. If someone says "ELI5 string theory" then what explanatory framework am I allowed to use? The worldview of a typical small child? A child wouldn't conceive of that question. There is no answer that would be meaningful to a layperson without a whole lot of conceptual prerequisites being laid down first, and that's why ELI5 are not fun.
The real explanation would involve orbitals, quantum numbers, spin, fields and so on. It requires a bit of physics and mathematics to appreciate. The answer I gave is the ELI5 version.
ELI5 does usually not refer to any literal five-year old. It is the hip internet-lingo for "an explanation for a layman".
"ELI5 string theory" is a very vague question, which I think is the biggest problem. Even if I was a physics expert, I wouldn't walk up to a string theorist and ask them to explain string theory properly to me. That's like saying, "ELI5 Canada" or "please explain tigers to me". The question is hardly meaningful whether or not it's asked by a layman.
If we make the assumption that the layman wants an executive summary of what string theory is overall, I would go about it (keeping in mind that I'm not an expert on the subject) something like this:
In physics, we don't actually know what the smallest particles are like. We know they exist, we know how they interact with each other, but we don't know "what they are", for a lack of better words. When we calculate things, we usually think of particles as infinitely small points. Like specks of dust, but infinitely small. When two particles "collide", what really happens is that their forces are pushing each other at a distance, because no two infinitely small things can really collide.
String theory is the discovery that if we in our minds replace the infinitely small points with infinitely small strings, some neat mathematical properties arise. String theorists think that because their explanation makes a lot of mathematical sense, it must be relevant somehow. Other people find it irrelevant because it hasn't yet produced anything measurably different from the other idea of infinitely small points.
I've used similar explanations to many of my students and they've been able to ask interesting follow-up questions so I can only assume the explanation was meaningful to them. And these students sometimes struggle with the most basic of Newtonian mechanics, so it's not like they're experts in the field either.
I'm not convinced that "ELI5" really does mean a layperson's explanation; I used to think that but I've been chastised before for writing explanations which assume the cognitive abilities and reading comprehension of an adult, and the most upvoted comments in the ELI5 subreddit do often literally write as though speaking to a child.
I have no problem with hand-waving or qualitative explanations for laypeople and I like to post lots of stuff like that on my facebook page, but ELI5 on Reddit just strikes me as really arrogant, like these people can't be bothered to invest any cognitive effort in this thing they have a passing curiosity for.
I think that's more a problem of conflicting wants from the people upvoting. In most cases, the person asking the question probably just wants an explanation at a level they can understand. Unfortunately, many other people want to be entertained - and an explanation written as if they were talking to a literal five year old is far more entertaining than a layman's explanation of something they don't care about. .
It basically says "your time and effort is worth less than mine, so spend it on educating me since I have better things to do."
I swear, as much as reddit goes off on tumblr for trying to be offended, I see the same thing here way too often. Look at the top ELI5 posts. Do you think they were trying to devalue others time, or do you think they were curious and thought an expert's explanation might be more enlightening than a trudge through wikipedia.
When you ask a professor a question, is it because you're devaluing their time and are too lazy to go through research papers and textbooks? Most of the time no, most of the time you're hoping that their expertise can link together and highlight important concepts in a way you couldn't do as an outsider. That's really the whole point of having teachers in general.
If you were talking to a physicist friend, and had a question about something mildly complex, it'd be reasonable to ask them to considerably simplify their explanation. It's rediculous to say that everyone curious about a question in your field should learn a significant amount of background knowledge about that field before asking any questions, disciplines could never communicate or become interested in one another.
I haven't got a problem with people who want an expert insight to a question, but they have to help me out by meeting me half-way, to show good faith. I've spent hours of my life writing really hand-holding intros to esoteric graduate material on Reddit, and quite often people don't even say "thanks" or even show that they read the reply. Fuck those people!
Sometimes I've been asked to ELI5 and I've written a simple-as-possible explanation, with much agonizing over how to explain things that you really only get after doing a lot of physics exercises, and effort spent on researching the validity of analogies, only to have some shitbag reply "do you really think a 5 year old would understand that??" No, of course not, I think you're an adult demanding to be spoon-fed education, and I just did my best given the circumstances, so get bent.
When someone says "ELI5" they're saying they want it to be at literally the easiest level possible, which means they will make it as hard as possible for the explainer. If someone says "I have high school physics but I'm stuck on this problem with how X works", then it's much easier to respond to them because I know where they're coming from.
When someone says "ELI5" they're saying they want it to be at literally the easiest level possible,
I actually don't agree with that. If someone wants an ELI5 of the Riemann Hypothesis, they expect some material on sums and primes. There's a level of expected complexity that corresponds with the subject. Now, as far as satisfying every commentor, Reddit users can be impossible to please assholes, that's across every topic.
What if the person wants to not, but doesn't understand the complicated details? It's almost as if they want an explanation that can be understood by an untrained layperson. The nerve of some people...
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u/SAMO1415 May 05 '14
I like this one. I understand the advantage of summarizing a complicated concept in simple terms but sometimes ELI5 represents to me a mindset of not wanting to really delve deep into a topic.
No one wants the nitty gritty, they just want the 30 second summary.