What unexpected skills help you with academic writing? I think my years of writing computer code have helped me write better (or at least clearer) philosophy papers. Editing often feels like I'm trying to make the argument 'compile' in the mind of an imaginary reader. #philsky #philsci - ThreadSky

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erantal.bsky.social • 74 days ago

What unexpected skills help you with academic writing? I think my years of writing computer code have helped me write better (or at least clearer) philosophy papers. Editing often feels like I'm trying to make the argument 'compile' in the mind of an imaginary reader. #philsky #philsci

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ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social•74 days ago

comedy writing is helpful -- not to be funny, but to be pithy

tuomaspernu.bsky.social•74 days ago

Social media. It teaching you to be succinct.

memesbyseth.bsky.social•74 days ago

The concept of building input protection into your code translates well. You have to ask yourself, "how might my reader interpret this differently than what I meant and what can I do to either preempt or handle that possible misinterpretation."

onlyfjords.bsky.social•74 days ago

Engaging in verbal battles with my combative and relentlessly argumentative father.

It probably wasn’t the healthiest lesson, but it likely sharpened my ability to spot any weaknesses in my writing.

RIP, old man.

tedneward.bsky.social•74 days ago

Oh, as a longtime software developer and architect, and amateur philosopher, I really want to hear more here. Or help vet the idea. I think there’s some interesting fodder here for exploration. :-)

duhe.bsky.social•74 days ago

As someone who has done both, put me down as not seeing the crossover. Writing philosophy (== for philosophers) is more like installing software updates: PhilSci 2.0 requires Social Epistemology 0.4 (beta) which requires uninstalling Realism 1.0.1. Use --force if you are sure.

erantal.bsky.social•74 days ago

I think it has to do with the level of care about rules of syntax and semantics that coding instilled in me. Also, I like the software package metaphor for background commitments.

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