alt Hacker NewsI always understood it as advice for school children who don't know how to express themselves in writing and end up with a blank page. You are encouraged to imagine you're talking to someone to overcome the hurdle of translating thoughts into words.
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Izkata • today at 4:37 AM
Along similar lines, in elementary school we were taught the introduction/body/conclusion pattern to help organize our thoughts in essays, but actually using those words as headers makes you sound like a child. "Conclusion" is especially common. It just reads like you're blindly following that pattern and don't actually know how to tie your thoughts together.
I remember editing my then girlfriend’s (now wife) papers in university, when she was struggling to explain something succinctly. I’d ask her: well what are you trying to say? And she would explain it to me, clear as day. “Just write that.”