Interpretive Labour

Source: Research Debt in Distill Pub

There is a tradeoff between energy put into explaining an idea, and the energy needed to understand it. This energy differential is called ‘interpretive labour’

Most research is one-to-many, where there are a lot more people trying to understand a subject than explaining it. As a result, the quality of explanations have an outsized impact for the better.

Interpretive Labour Multiplier

Cost of understanding increases when there are more source to try to understand. This may be why people specialize so that there is less noise. Related: group limits