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Subject: Re: Spoonsful of Pinker ( 3 of 3 )
Posted by beeline

But now that you've read Pinker, and you have a greater awareness of words and their syntax, do you find that any of your writing habits have changed at all?

Let me explain. I just had this image of an athlete, let's say a high-jumper, learning some very specific things from an anatomist about his leg muscles. When he next jumps, he thinks about lactic acidosis and ligament elasticity and so on instead of focusing on the jump itself, and his slight preoccupation with his newfound knowledge affects his performance - unfavourably in this case.

I just wondered if you'd ever found that your knowledge of a process's mechanics (i.e. words and their syntax) ever 'got in the way' of that process (i.e. being able to write fluidly).
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