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Comment by niam

1 month ago

> Why does HN love analogies?

I suppose because they resemble the abstractions that make complex language possible. Another world full of aggressive posturing at tweet-length analogistic musings might have stifled some useful English parlance early.

But I reckon that we shouldn't have called it phishing because emails don't always smell.

> I suppose because they resemble the abstractions that make complex language possible

As in models: All analogies are "wrong", some analogies are useful.

If you ever heard a sermon by a priest it’s loaded with analogies. Everyone loves analogies but analogies are not a form of reason and can often be used to mislead. A lot of these sermons are driven by reasoning via analogy.

My question is more why does HN love analogies when the above is true.