A little feedback, please...

[Deleted member 619]

I recently republished a post on the blog about technical language, jargon and notation. It was always intended to be the first in a series, and I'm picking it up again, but I could really do with a bit of feedback, not least because some of it is slightly out of my comfort zone.


The feedback I'm looking for is:

Was it easy to read?
Was it easy to understand?
Was there anything confusing?
Did you find it informative and/or useful in general (not counting the bits that would interest you anyway)?
Is there anything you'd do differently?
Was it entertaining/engaging/fun?

In On The Secret

 

[Sparhafoc]

The feedback I'm looking for is:

Was it easy to read?
Was it easy to understand?
Was there anything confusing?
Did you find it informative and/or useful in general (not counting the bits that would interest you anyway)?
Is there anything you'd do differently?
Was it entertaining/engaging/fun?

In On The Secret

1-4 yes
5 - I recently tried to help my son improve his math skill, which is quite ironic considering my math skill, but I used a similar approach attempting to demystify notation and show how vital it is to master in order to be able to address stuff that's outside of our normal, every day experience.
6 - It was, but honestly it's not my personal cup of tea (i'd have wandered off into Sapir-Whorf because that shit floats my boat), so the fact that I got to the end suggests if it was sufficiently engaging and entertaining for me then anyone could share that sense.

Glad you're back writing again.

 

[Deleted member 619]

Thanks, brother.

Sapir-Whorf didn't even occur to me, but it's intended to be a series, so there's no reason I can't still go there. In fact, I have most of a post that was supposed to be in that, but I cut it and set it aside for another outing for a couple of reasons. First, I felt that the post was already long, even by my Tolstoyesque standard. Second, the next bit is about the propositional calculus, so it would have felt slightly disjointed in there where most of the concepts, disparate though they are, were fairly straightforward to tie together in a nice bundle that interacted nicely. Third and most importantly, the rudiments can be expressed fairly briefly, but it really deserves to be given its head a bit to make a meaningful dent in it.

It's nice to be writing again. It feels a bit strange, and I'm still finding my feet, but it's beginning to feel like that familiar pair of old slippers after a long period abroad.

 

[Deleted member 619]

Meant to add I find it interesting that, despite the blog being functionally dead for most of two years, with me not even checking in on it much less promoting it in any way, I looked at the stats when I first logged in to discover that it's still consistently getting at least 1K hits a week. Curious about that, I googled myself and a couple of key words pertaining to the most read posts, and found that quite a lot of places have linked to them.

Pretty chuffed about that. I mean, I don't much give a crap about popularity, but I do care that people are reading and hopefully learning from it. It gave me a little impetus to get started, so I extracted a topic from my ass and got on with it, starting with a brief post about the nature of expertise starring (pun intended) Henrietta Leavitt.

 

[BrachioPEP]

On another (Facebook) group, (of 1000 members) we published a quality, extensive magazine which was purel and exclusively for the group (I’m not sure any magazine for a group is as big, comprehensive etc. as it) and we asked for feedback via a 1 minute survey. After 2+ weeks, pinning to noticeboard, reminders, re-posts etc. we got 6 people; hardly enough to give much information about the magazine, but very telling about the group interest. The question one asks oneself if heavily involved in the group/magazine, is, if there is anything MORE appropriate than THIS (Free, exclusive, project specific magazine), I can’t imagine what it would be, yet it was ignored, so why join? The conclusion is probably the same/typical for many sites/groups, and that members click groups at the drop of a hat and like they are going out of fashion, and rarely actually interact. Whilst this is their right, it is somewhat disheartening to realise that you are talking to a 1000 seat auditorium before you, with just 6 people taking any interest, the rest being empty or with rare drop ins.

It is good that your efforts are clearly not in vain, as they are being utilised, and as a Faceboook group (I am speaking of) remains for posterity, we may have the same affect, especially in the longer term. But it might also mean we are not interesting enough, but without feedback, we won’t know. Catch 22. No such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher. Ditto for a group. A genuinely interested audience will be only too happy to be there and often, interact.

 

[Deleted member 619]

I feel you. The one thing I have in my favour is that my readership hasn't suffered nearly as much as I thought it would have done. Despite not having written anything in almost two years, my readership has never fallen below about 1K hits per week, and without any promotion from me.

It hasn't hurt, I'm sure, that a couple of my articles have ended up being featured in a few places that appear to be well read, a fact I wasn't aware of until I wondered why the reading figures were still not unreasonable after such a long hiatus. I knew that my post on evolution was always popular, not least because a couple of highly-regarded people have recommended it publicly.

Still, I've asked for feedback from a range of places, and the response has mostly been decent.

 

[surreptitious75]

Have only just saw this now hence the late response
Do not usually give feedback but since it was asked

Yes it was easy to read
Yes it was easy to understand
No there was nothing confusing
Yes it was informative and useful
Yes I would make some differences

Change the title [ not sufficiently relevant ]
Remove the second sentence [ superfluous ]
Remove the image / quotation [ superfluous ]

Make the connection between English and math because both use Greek notation
So the only reason some find one harder than the other is because of unfamiliarity

Yes it was engaging as there was a logical connection between all the different disciplines

 

[Deleted member 619]

Cheers.