It's really hard to read past this. I've seen this tone occasionally from junior academic lectures who somehow think that talking to people like they are nervous children will help put them at ease. I don't think the author's doing this malociouly, but it comes across as "I'm so smart, but don't be afraid, I'm dumbing it down to a cutesy level you can understand"
Avoid writing like this if you can, it's clear from the comments the article is otherwise very good
"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article and rush to the thread to complain about it. Find something interesting to comment about instead."
it's just the pop-sci writing style. You see this with lots of articles and content directed at a general audience - I think this author's just reused the same style to talk to a technical audience. It's not inherently condescending, it just comes across that way if you're writing for an audience of technical peers.
this kind of breathless style makes more sense when you don't expect the audience to be technically literate and the content is there to make them say "wow, I don't understand anything you're saying but there certainly are technical words in here!" - see, for instance, popular media around anything related to quantum mechanics.
Of course I disagree. Your comment, which advises people not to write like the article, starts with phrase it's a waste of time to read. Then it misquotes the article—I was, naturally, expecting to see that quote in the article. It repeats a phrase, apparently for effect. "Malociouly"? You seem to see signs of humanity in the writer only as condescension and vanity. Your "Avoid writing like this" applies infinitely better to your own comment, I think.
You seem to assume all writing should be dry academic writing, without vivid language or friendliness to the reader.
I agree. From personal experience, this sort of phrasing comes during a temporary high that you get after mastering a topic. Conquering a piece of technical material elevates you, and in a sense you want to be condescending towards your ignorant past self.
> Totally neat, crazy correlations, scary math, pretty pictures, shiny pictures
It's really hard to read past this. I've seen this tone occasionally from junior academic lectures who somehow think that talking to people like they are nervous children will help put them at ease. I don't think the author's doing this malociouly, but it comes across as "I'm so smart, but don't be afraid, I'm dumbing it down to a cutesy level you can understand"
Avoid writing like this if you can, it's clear from the comments the article is otherwise very good