this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I won't argue the point further than this message, and I appreciate the details you've provided, but the point of analogies is drawing parallels to quickly aid understanding at a surface level.

Nothing analogous to finding a needle in a haystack actually involves rooting through dry grass for a sliver of metal, but the analogy still stands.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The limits of metaphor are when they do more to disguise than to explain.

We shouldn't confuse things that can be difficult or require significant study to understand or explain with convenient but wrong stories.

If a metaphor fails the first test, than we shouldn't use it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I agree - but parallels can be a quick and effective way to communicate information where the specifics aren't important, even if they have to be consciously discarded for someone diving further into the detail.