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Comment by jasode

10 months ago

> In what sense is it inverted?

The triangle is upside down:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)

It's funny because from that diagram I really don't see any particular relationship between the shape and its content. You could draw a regular pyramid with three segments and write the same labels on it and it would make just as much sense to me.

If anything a regular pyramid makes more sense to me: you want the smallest/narrowest useful description at the top and then you gradually expand on it as you go down, providing more (wider) context and detail for the key information.

Edit: Of course, it's a widely used term and good to understand in that context; the Wikipedia link is useful.

  • I think it's about laying foundations at the beginning, not the length of the text at the beginning. The first sentence/paragraph is the foundation of everything beneath it, whereas the base of a normal pyramid is the foundation of everything above it.

  • > I really don't see any particular relationship between the shape and its content.

    This is often the case with geometric metaphors. They catch on easily, but they rarely make a lot of sense on closer scrutiny.