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We tend to explain how something works to describe what it is.
We can break it down into categories and measurements, but this pretends to be understood without clarifying or enlightening.
We need to know how something fits into the world more than we need a fact sheet.
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Given our incentive structure our time is very valuable. Thus we are good at doing things to people, such as procedures, but we are not good at doing things for people, such as attentive listening and discussion.
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There is a difference in describing and explaining.
Science has become better and better at describing things (phenomenon) and predicting behaviors. But discrepancies continue to appear, and we cannot explain how they came to be.
We can describe in detail, but not wrap it into a powerful narrative of causal explanation, which leads to a more and more fragmented information, with more and more speculative theories stringing them together, producing a less and less coherent worldview.
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Imperative pointing says “I want that” or “gimme that.”
Declarative pointing says “Let us consider this.”
Interestingly, Chimpanzees can point imperatively, but only humans point declaratively and share their attention of the world. We work together to shape how we see the world.
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If the question arises on it’s own: should I do this? Then it is probably the answer. The cue is the context, the question itself is the guide.
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To confuse skills with career is common. To confuse nationalism and patriotism is common. To confuse passion with love is common. To confuse value and worth is common.
As Timothy Snyder says: be kind to our language. Be precise. Avoid clichés.
When our medium of communication becomes casually abused and twisted we can feel the trap, but do not have the concept (accessibly contained in language) to push back.
