17 Comments
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Daniel Nest's avatar

Wait, can you explain that again?

I'm a big fan of explainer-stylen stuff and even had a short lived big experiment called "Gimme The Gist" where I tried to condense any topic into exactly 200 words with a "Gimme More" roundup of links for further reading: https://gimmegist.wordpress.com/

Andrew Smith's avatar

I like the idea, and I suspect at least a few people really appreciated this effort, especially prior to the Drunken Octopus Era we're living through now.

Andrew Smith's avatar

I love Rob Lowe's brand of humor, but I couldn't get past about 30 seconds here.

Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Frikkin YouTube, sorry wish you could get those 30 seconds back. My bad. I meant to share this documentary on a 'Big Year' https://youtu.be/zl-wAqplQAo

Author John G. Dyer's avatar

Chiggers do not bore into your skin. They take a bite, and leave. Fingernail polish relieves discomfort because it contains acetone. Acetone is an anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, astringent, and mild anesthetic.

Andrew Smith's avatar

I remember doing that as a kid!

Author John G. Dyer's avatar

Fear not. No chiggers were suffocated under your skin.

Andrew Smith's avatar

That's wild, but also: there are so many little lies we constantly told ourselves. I bet we could come up with a really good list and write about that some time.

Author John G. Dyer's avatar

You'll have to do it. Nobody reads my material.

Andrew Smith's avatar

I made a note.

Rudy Fischmann's avatar

Do you consider the “The Idiot’s Guide To…” books an early form of explainer? Or perhaps described as a “precursory to cursory explanations”?

Andrew Smith's avatar

I'm not sure how I'd classify them, but I can vouch for getting a lot of value from similar approaches to learning, including "dummies" books. Maybe that's a necessary previous step to get to the modern version of explainers?

Rudy Fischmann's avatar

I guess I was thinking of the “dummy’s” books and not “idiot’s”. How moronic of me.

Andrew Smith's avatar

For your birthday next year, I will buy you a copy of "The Complete Dipshit's Guide to Knowing the Difference Between Idiot and Dummy"

Rudy Fischmann's avatar

Why wait a year… it’s in six weeks!

Andrew Smith's avatar

I need a year to save up for it.