Too Obvious?

Having already begun to think about and write down some things I'd like to cover in this blog, I can't help but notice that I seem to be using the phrase 'this might seem obvious but...' an awful lot.

The problem with the 'obvious' is that it's often assumed and therefore seldom stated. This seems to be a particular problem when discussing ideas that are seen to be relatively 'basic', or when the person teaching a concept has become so familiar with it that they can't remember what it's like to find that concept completely alien.

It's highly likely, then, that I'll end up repeating a lot of things ad nauseum. Firstly, I'd like you to consider whether you are quite as familiar with the concept in question as you think you are. Whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', I'd ask you to read it anyway and see if you get anything from the way I'm thinking about it, or to see if you can suggest anything which may help myself or others to get more from it. If the answer is still 'no', then my apologies.

I'd rather overstate something and look slightly daft for it than to assume a person is already familiar with it or finds it clear first time round and thus render the concept completely unreachable for them. I've been there and it's not cool. The main purpose of repeating it is that I have to do this myself to drill it into my own head, and for the most part it takes an awful lot of drilling. Hopefully this will help to make the approach or application I'm thinking about clear - if the content I'm trying to apply is new to you then there are tonnes of lessons you can find through Google that will probably explain things better than I could, and may provide you with a perspective which you find more useful than mine anyway.