Show, Don't Tell

http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/05/show-dont-tell.html

by baha_man • 18 years ago

37 11 18 years ago

weblog.raganwald.com

dnaquin• 18 years ago

This was the core lesson of all my creative writing classes.

unalone• 18 years ago

It's something that applies to most art forms. The more you tell somebody what something is, and the less you show them, the more time it takes for them to comprehend it, and therefore the less it actually has an effect.

Of course, in creative writing it's a bit harder, since there are some very good ways of showing people things that have become deeply cliched, and it's considered improper to use those techniques. That's not the case online, unless you consider glossy buttons and rounded edges to be a cliche, which is entirely possible.

xirium• 18 years ago

From the article: And hey, that "better search" thingie you were droning on and on about? How much better can searching the Internet really be? Why would anyone care?

We get that quite frequently, so we just keep codin'.

raganwald• 18 years ago

Amen. The best way to convince me of your vision of the future is to build it. Rock on!

edw519• 18 years ago

1. Tell them what you're going to show them.

2. Show them.

3. Tell them what you just showed them.

wallflower• 18 years ago

"The soft over comes the hard, the slow over comes the fast, let your working remain a mystery just show people the result."

_Tao Te Ching_

TrevorJ• 18 years ago

As a almost total visual thinker, I often get in trouble for taking it too far and basically finishing a project in order to show somebody what my proposal for given project actually is.

notauser• 18 years ago

My thesis supervisor always used to finish projects before submitting grant applications, as it was the only way to put together a reliable estimate on research projects.

The only trouble he had was when the application was bounced as being too large for the funding requested :)

nertzy• 18 years ago

This is what separates good webcomics from bad webcomics, I've noticed lately.

Also, The Darjeeling Limited does a great job of showing instead of telling. And 2001: A Space Odyssey.

phony_identity• 18 years ago

That had the lowest meaning / words ratio of any programming blog post I've read.

rainface• 18 years ago

A Rush fan?

Show, Don't Tell

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