Abstraction is an exercise in a pre-assured failure. It is a futile attempt to communicate the non-communicable.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Abstraction tries to express what cannot be expressed, making it a doomed effort.
- In plain terms
- Trying to communicate the uncommunicable through abstraction is futile.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize limits in expression when dealing with abstract concepts.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can anything truly be uncommunicable?
- Where does language fail us?
Another view
Abstraction can sometimes capture nuances that direct language misses.
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