At 09:23 PM 5/19/2010, robert bristow-johnson wrote:
increasing the signal-to-noise ratio can be done two ways:1. increasing the signal content (only the sender can do that). 2. decreasing the noise content (both sender and receiver can do that, but for the receiver to do it without effort might be like performing surgery with an chain saw)
Nah. I write a lot, and someone who finds my writing a waste of time can simply elect to not read it, quite simple, which can be done easily with a filter, as Mr. Bristow-Johson has noisily informed us many times. I use Mailwasher as a spam filter that deletes mail on the server so that all that is left of it is a record that rotates out over time of the mail and the first N lines, configurable.
If it's like performing surgery with a chain saw, it must be that what is being cut off is (at least partly) valuable in some way. What Mr. Bristow-Johnson appears to want is for me to do the work so that he can read more easily. Sure. Excapt that what he's effectively asking me to do is perform surgery with a chain-saw, to excise material that I think *he* won't be interested in. But others might, plus I do learn by writing.
And many kindly read it and correct my errors, it's a major reason I write for these lists.
It's not true that the signal content can be increased easily, except by proportionally more work. Only noise can be decreased, and noise, in this case, is in the mind of the reader, not necessarily in the original content I write. It's all there for a reason. I'm often writing for readers who will come along later.
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