Comments on: Writing the Graduation Speech http://jeffrey.yasskin.info/blog/archives/2005/05/22/writing-grad-speech/ questions and comments on the world Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:37:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5 by: Will Warner http://jeffrey.yasskin.info/blog/archives/2005/05/22/writing-grad-speech/#comment-894 Tue, 24 May 2005 01:11:05 -0700 http://jeffrey.yasskin.info/blog/archives/2005/05/22/writing-grad-speech/#comment-894 Hmm, a very sharp analogy. It threatens dishonesty to model public speaking as manipulating a mass of minds between specified states, but it certainly seems accurate. I guess you just have to count on those minds to judge you carefully and keep you honest. And I think learning from others requires argument. It's hard to do it across very different mentalities and cultures without getting offensive. Keep the focus on the argument instead of the arguers, and try to be as patient and polite as you can without losing steam, I guess. And tell them what you just said about how you hope they won't get offended and want them to keep arguing with you :) Hmm, a very sharp analogy. It threatens dishonesty to model public speaking as manipulating a mass of minds between specified states, but it certainly seems accurate. I guess you just have to count on those minds to judge you carefully and keep you honest.

And I think learning from others requires argument. It’s hard to do it across very different mentalities and cultures without getting offensive. Keep the focus on the argument instead of the arguers, and try to be as patient and polite as you can without losing steam, I guess. And tell them what you just said about how you hope they won’t get offended and want them to keep arguing with you :)

]]> by: danb http://jeffrey.yasskin.info/blog/archives/2005/05/22/writing-grad-speech/#comment-901 Fri, 27 May 2005 18:33:12 -0700 http://jeffrey.yasskin.info/blog/archives/2005/05/22/writing-grad-speech/#comment-901 I think modularity is hard to achieve in writing. The intermediate mental states are too numerous, and often type coercion breaks flow. On type inhabitance: if each type is a state of mind, inhabitance means something very different from Curry-Howard inhabitance. In propositional logic and the lambda calculus, type inhabitance corresponds to the validity of a theorem (the type). In types for writing, inhabitance corresponds to the existence of a narrative that will change one state of mind to another; given enough time and distraction, the initial state of mind loses influence, and the question becomes merely whether the result state of mind can be achieved. In real type theory, the initial types are all you have to work with. In narration, ideas can be introduced arbitrarily. I think modularity is hard to achieve in writing. The intermediate mental states are too numerous, and often type coercion breaks flow.

On type inhabitance: if each type is a state of mind, inhabitance means something very different from Curry-Howard inhabitance. In propositional logic and the lambda calculus, type inhabitance corresponds to the validity of a theorem (the type). In types for writing, inhabitance corresponds to the existence of a narrative that will change one state of mind to another; given enough time and distraction, the initial state of mind loses influence, and the question becomes merely whether the result state of mind can be achieved. In real type theory, the initial types are all you have to work with. In narration, ideas can be introduced arbitrarily.

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