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Comment by parpfish | Hacker News Reader

one thing i've noticed about scientific writing:

many early-career folks are afraid to make things too simple and easy to understand because they (subconsciously?) fear that it makes their work seem simplistic or trivial.

when you're an academic that has built a great deal of your self identity around being perceived as 'the smart one', it takes a fair amount self-confidence to start presenting yourself in a way that is easy to understand

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I keep hearing this exact same idea and it puzzles me a great deal. Is it a computer science thing? I'm doing a PhD in signal processing / engineering and people seem to care a lot about giving simple and clear explanations so I don't really relate!

That's professional deformation, because signals are supposed to be clear and easily identifiable among noise.

In my experience in neuroscience it even differs widely across programs/universities. Some good professors care about giving good talks, and if you're lucky it becomes contagious in the program. Others think less of you if it's clear, some are too naive to realize obscurity is not a virtue.

I think there was a study at some point which showed that the worse the university, the more jargon the researchers use in their papers.

Maybe I'm overstepping, but I think 1. you're right 2. that it's driven by insecurity. I've experienced many instances of people trying to "protect their knowledge" so to speak by hiding behind jargon.

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