# Metaphor Hacker

> Hacking Metaphors, Frames and Other Ideas. Long-form essays by Dominik Lukeš on conceptual metaphor, cognitive linguistics, education, writing, and language technology. Originally published at https://metaphorhacker.net/ from 2010–2025.

## Key resources

- [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt): Full text of every post and page.
- [RSS feed](/rss.xml): Chronological feed, full text of the 10 most recent posts.
- [Sitemap](/sitemap-index.xml): All URLs on the site for machine consumption.

## Pages

- [About](https://metaphorhacker.net/about/)
- [Blog on Request](https://metaphorhacker.net/blog-on-request/)

## Posts (82 total, newest first)

- [Schemas and Propositions: What and where I've been writing and what's next](https://metaphorhacker.net/2025/08/schemas-and-propositions-what-and-where-ive-been-writing-and-whats-next/): What's been happening? It has been a little over two years since I posted on this blog last. I have been doing a lot of writing elsewhere on similar topics - mostly Large Langua…
- [Narrative vs Ruminative Sense making: The Mind Red in Tooth and Claw](https://metaphorhacker.net/2023/08/narrative-vs-ruminative-sense-making-the-mind-red-in-tooth-and-claw/): TL;DR Hunting for sense and cardboard gazelles: The limits of a narrative Getting the sense back in a field of grass: The potential of the ruminative node Mind red in tooth and …
- [Improving academic writing: Four books to read during #AcWriMo](https://metaphorhacker.net/2022/10/improving-academic-writing-four-books-to-read-during-acwrimo/): What is #AcWriMo November is the month of writing. There’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for writing fiction but also AcWriMo (Academic Writing Month) for producing a…
- [Unintentional Pygmalions: 4 questions to ask when checking an artificial entity for sentience and how to think about the answers](https://metaphorhacker.net/2022/08/unintentional-pygmalions-4-questions-to-ask-when-checking-an-artificial-entity-for-sentience-and-how-to-think-about-the-answers/): Summary This post has two independent parts: I ask what would some of the basic criteria for sentience be and how to check for them in a way that would give us a chance to satis…
- [Learning is a Journey: Consequences of a metaphor](https://metaphorhacker.net/2022/06/learning-is-a-journey-consequences-of-a-metaphor/): How to read this This will take about 18 minutes to read (at 230 words/min ) but the text is structured to make it easy to jump around and find the key points faster. I tend to …
- [3 fundamental problems of translating metaphor (or anything else)](https://metaphorhacker.net/2022/03/3-fundamental-problems-of-translating-metaphor-or-anything-else/): How hard is it to translate metaphor? Metaphor seems like it should be very difficult to translate. But I’d like to argue that what is difficult about translating it is not the …
- [World as a directly meaningful place: A comment on Ecological Psychology and the richness of human experience](https://metaphorhacker.net/2021/11/world-as-a-directly-meaningful-place-a-comment-on-ecological-psychology-and-the-richness-of-human-experience/): Background - From comment to blog post I just finished reading Andrew Wilson's series of blog posts on the foundation of 'ecological psychology' This post started as a comment b…
- [History as weather: A fractal theory of history for Ian Morris, Jared Diamond and CGP Grey](https://metaphorhacker.net/2021/06/history-as-weather-a-fractal-theory-of-history-for-ian-morris-jared-diamond-and-cgp-grey/): Note: This post originally appeared on Medium in 2016. This a very lightly revised version with new formatting for ease of readability . It preceded the post on historical revis…
- [Why I am a feminist: A reading list](https://metaphorhacker.net/2021/03/why-i-am-a-feminist-a-reading-list/): I became a feminist because a woman once told me not to be an idiot and I decided that it was good advice. That was in 1998. But I was all ready to be a feminist long before tha…
- [The nonsense of style: Academic writing should be scrupulous not stylish](https://metaphorhacker.net/2021/01/the-nonsense-of-style-academic-writing-should-be-scrupulous-not-stylish/): The problem with writing advice The problem with the likes of Steven Pinker and Helen Sword is that they like their own writing way too much. But I don't. Like their writing, th…
- [Metaphors and freedom: On Tolkien's notion of allegory vs applicability](https://metaphorhacker.net/2021/01/metaphors-and-freedom-on-tolkiens-notion-of-allegory-vs-applicability/): On rereading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I was struck by this passage in his foreword to the second edition: I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always …
- [No back row, no corridor: Metaphors for online teaching and learning](https://metaphorhacker.net/2020/06/no-back-row-no-corridor-metaphors-for-online-teaching-and-learning/): Publication note An earlier version of this was published in the Oxford Magazine No 422. This post expands certain sections based on questions and feedback I received following …
- [It’s not personal, it’s family: Kin, strangers, guests, and the complexity of social obligation](https://metaphorhacker.net/2020/02/its-not-personal-its-family/): Brooks on the alternatives to nuclear family Tyler Cowen called the extended essay by David Brooks called ‘The nuclear family was a mistake’ a “so far the best essay of the year…
- [How to actually write a sentence: The building blocks of written language](https://metaphorhacker.net/2020/02/how-to-actually-write-a-sentence-the-building-blocks-of-written-language/): Some time ago, Thomas Basbøll followed up his excellent post on how to write a paragraph with a much more daring endeavour on how to write a sentence . And while the post is a p…
- [Potemkin wisdoms, phronesis and Pixar: How wise sayings protect us from meaning](https://metaphorhacker.net/2020/01/potemkin-wisdoms-phronesis-and-pixar-how-wise-sayings-protect-us-from-meaning/): TL;DR This is an exploration of the difference between wisdom and practical wisdom (phronesis) triggered by this quote from a talk by Ed Catmull : “Once one can articulate an im…
- [So you think you have a historical analogy? Revisionist history and anthropology reading list](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/09/so-you-think-you-have-a-historical-analogy-revisionist-history-and-anthropology-reading-list/): What is this about How badly we’re getting history While the world of history and anthropology of the last 30-40 years has completely redrawn the picture of our past, the common…
- [Turing tests in Chinese rooms: What does it mean for AI to outperform humans](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/07/turing-tests-in-chinese-rooms-what-does-it-mean-for-ai-to-outperform-humans/): TLDR; Reports that AI beat humans on certain benchmarks or very specialised tasks don’t mean that AI is actually better at those tasks than any individual human. They certainly …
- [Fruit loops and metaphors: Metaphors are not about explaining the abstract through concrete but about the dynamic process of negotiated sensemaking](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/07/fruit-loops-and-metaphors-metaphors-are-not-about-explaining-the-abstract-through-concrete-but-about-the-dynamic-process-of-negotiated-sensemaking/): Note: This is a slightly edited version of a post that first appeared on Medium . It elaborates and exemplifies examples I gave in the more recent posts on metaphor and explanat…
- [5 books on knowledge and expertise: Reading list for exploring the role of knowledge and deliberate practice in the development of expert performance](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/06/5-books-on-knowledge-and-expertise-reading-list-for-exploring-the-role-of-knowledge-and-deliberate-practice-in-the-development-of-expert-performance/): Recently, I've been exploring the notion of explanation and understanding . I was (partly implicitly) relying on the notion of 'mental representations' as built through delibera…
- [Writing as translation and translation as commitment: Why is (academic) writing so hard?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/06/writing-as-translation-and-translation-as-commitment-why-is-academic-writing-so-hard/): This book will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves already thought the thoughts which are expressed in it—or similar thoughts. It is therefore not a text-boo…
- [5 kinds of understanding and metaphors: Missing pieces in pedagogical taxonomies](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/06/5-kinds-of-understanding-and-metaphors-missing-pieces-in-pedagogical-taxonomies/): TL;DR This post outlines 5 levels or types of understanding to help us better to think about the role of metaphor in explanation : Associative understanding: Place a concept in …
- [Explanation is an event, understanding is a process: How (not) to explain anything with metaphor](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/05/explanation-is-an-event-understanding-is-a-process-how-not-to-explain-anything-with-metaphor/): TL;DR There are at least 3 uses of metaphor in the educational process: 1. Invitation to enter; 2. An instrument to grasp knowledge with; 3. Catalyst to transform understanding.…
- [What would make linguistics a better science? Science as a metaphor](https://metaphorhacker.net/2019/04/what-would-make-linguistics-a-better-science-science-as-a-metaphor/): Background This is a lightly edited version of a comment posted on Martin Haspelmath's blog post " Against traditional grammar – and for normal science in linguistics ". In it h…
- [Cats and butterflies: 2 misunderstood analogies in scientistic discourse](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/11/cats-and-butterflies-2-misunderstood-analogies-in-scientistic-discourse/): Butterfly effect and Schrödinger's cat are 2 very common ways of signalling one's belonging to the class of the scientifically literate. But they are almost always told wrong. T…
- [3 burning issues in the study of metaphor](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/11/3-burning-issues-in-the-study-of-metaphor/): I'm not sure how 'burning' these issues are as such but if they're not, I'd propose that they deserve to have some kindling or other accelerant thrown on them. 1. What is the in…
- [3 “easy” things that are hard for both humans and AI](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/10/3-easy-things-that-are-hard-for-both-humans-and-ai/): Everybody is agog at what AI systems can do. Nobody thought even 10 years ago that machines could be trained to recognise images or transcribe natural speech as well as they do …
- [Innovation is bad for business: 3 more ‘I’ words to compare innovation to](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/10/innovation-is-bad-for-business-3-more-i-words-to-compare-innovation-to/): Innovation is the ‘in’ thing. Innovate or die is the buzz up and down the hive mind. Everybody is feeling like they must innovate all of the things all of the time. But is the i…
- [Does machine learning produce mental representations?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/05/does-machine-learning-produce-mental-representations/): TL;DR Why is this important? Many people believe that mental representations are the next goal for ML and a prerequisite for AGI. Does machine learning produce mental representa…
- [Not ships in the night: Metaphor and simile as process](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/05/not-ships-in-the-night-metaphor-and-simile-as-process/): In some circles (rhetoric and analytics philosophy come to mind), much is made of the difference between metaphor and simile. (Rhetoricians pay attention to it because they like…
- [How to read ‘Women, Fire and Dangerous Things’: Guide to essential reading on human cognition](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/05/how-to-read-women-fire-and-dangerous-things-guide-to-essential-reading-on-human-cognition/): Note: These are rough notes for a metaphor reading group, not a continuous narrative. Any comments, corrections or elaborations are welcome. Why should you read WFDT? Women, Fir…
- [Therapy for Frege: A brief outline of the theory of everything](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/05/therapy-for-frege-a-brief-outline-of-the-theory-of-everything/): Frege’s trauma I found the following quote from Frege on the Language goes on holiday blog and it struck as the perfect starting point for this essay which has been written for …
- [10 ways in which music is like language and 8 (more important) ways in which it is not](https://metaphorhacker.net/2018/03/10-ways-in-which-music-is-like-language-and-8-more-important-ways-in-which-it-is-not/): People often talk about music as if it were language. Leonard Bernstein even recorded a series of lectures applying Chomsky’s theory of generative grammar to music . Chomsky him…
- [What language looks like: Dictionary and grammar are to language what standing on one foot is to running](https://metaphorhacker.net/2014/11/what-language-looks-like-dictionary-and-grammar-are-to-language-what-standing-on-one-foot-is-to-running/): Background Sometimes a rather obscure and complex analogy just clicks into place in one's mind and allows a slightly altered way of thinking that just makes so much sense it hur…
- [Anthropologists' metaphorical shenanigans: Or how (not) to research metaphor](https://metaphorhacker.net/2014/08/anthropologists-metaphorical-shenanigans-or-how-not-to-research-metaphor/): Over on the excellent 'Genealogy of Religion' , Cris Campbell waved a friendly red rag in front of my eyes to make me incensed over exaggerated claims (some) anthropologists mak…
- [What does it mean when words 'really' mean something: Dismiss the Miss](https://metaphorhacker.net/2014/05/what-does-it-mean-when-texts-really-mean-something/): A few days ago, I tweeted a link to an article in TES : What Miss really means < It's always worthwhile re-examining ingrained inequalities http://t.co/GKhjc4VgUP #edchat #uk…
- [What is not a metaphor: Modelling the world through language, thought, science, or action](https://metaphorhacker.net/2014/03/what-is-not-a-metaphor-modelling-the-world-through-language-thought-science-or-action/): The role of metaphor in science debate (Background) Recently, the LSE podcast an interesting panel on the subject of "Metaphors and Science" . It featured three speakers talking…
- [Linguistics according to Fillmore](https://metaphorhacker.net/2014/02/linguistics-according-to-fillmore/): While people keep banging on about Chomsky as being the be all and end all of linguistics (I'm looking at you philosophers of language), there have been many linguists who have …
- [5 things everybody should know about language: Outline of linguistics' contribution to the liberal arts curriculum](https://metaphorhacker.net/2014/01/5-things-everybody-should-know-about-language-outline-of-linguistics-contribution-to-the-liberal-arts-curriculum/): Drafty This was written in some haste and needs further refinement. Maybe one day that will come. For now, it will be left as it stands. Background This post outlines what I thi…
- [Binders full of women with mighty pens: What is metonymy](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/12/binders-full-of-women-with-mighty-pens-what-is-metonymy/): Metonymy in the wild Things were not going well for Mitt Romney in early autumn of last year. And then he responded to a query about gender equality with this sentence: "I had t…
- [Three books of the year 2013 and some books of the century 1900-2013](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/11/three-books-of-the-year-2013-and-some-books-of-the-century-1900-2013/): I have been asked (as every year) to nominate three books of the year for Lidové Noviny (a Czech paper I contribute to occasionally). This is always a tough choice for me and so…
- [Pervasiveness of Obliging Metaphors in Thought and Deed](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/10/pervasiveness-of-oblidging-metaphors-in-thought-and-deed/): " when history is at its most obliging, the history-writer needs be at his most wary." ( China by John Keay ) I came across this nugget of wisdom when I was re-reading the Intro…
- [Storms in all Teacups: The Power and Inequality in the Battle for Science Universality](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/09/storms-in-all-teacups-the-power-and-inequality-in-the-battle-for-science-universality/): The great blog Genealogy of Religion posted this video with a somewhat approving commentary: The video started off with panache and promised some entertainment, however, I found…
- [Sunsets, horizons and the language/mind/culture distinction](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/08/sunsets-horizons-and-the-languagemindculture-distinction/): For some reason, many accomplished people, when they are done accomplishing what they've set out to accomplish, turn their minds to questions like: What is primary, thought or l…
- [How we use metaphors](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/04/how-we-use-metaphors/): I was reminded by this blog post on LousyLinguist that many people still see metaphor as an unproblematic homogeneous concept leading to much circular thinking about them. I wro…
- [Do we need a gaming literacy: Literacy metaphor hack](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/04/do-we-need-a-gaming-literacy-literacy-metaphor-hack/): I am a gaming semi-literate! I was listening to the discussion of the latest BioShock game on the latest TWiT podcast when I realized that I am in fact game illiterate. I am hea…
- [Framing and constructions as a bridge between cognition and culture: Two Abstracts for Cognitive Futures](https://metaphorhacker.net/2013/01/framing-constructions-as-a-bridge-between-cognition-and-culture-two-abstracts-for-cognitive-futures/): I just found out that both abstracts I submitted to the Cognitive Futures of the Humanities Conference were accepted. I was really only expecting one to get through but I'm look…
- [The complexities of simple: What simple language proponents should know about linguistics [updated]](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/09/the-complexities-of-simple-what-simple-language-proponents-should-know-about-linguistics/): Update Part of this post was incorporated into an article I wrote with Brian Kelly and Alistair McNaught that appeared in the December issue of Ariadne . As part of that work an…
- [Cliches, information and metaphors: Overcoming prejudice with metahor hacking and getting it back again](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/08/cliches-information-and-metaphors-overcoming-prejudice-with-metahor-hacking-and-getting-it-back-again/): [caption id="" align="alignright" width="240"] Professor Abhijit Banerjee (Photo credit: kalyan3)[/caption] "We have to use cliches," said professor Abhijit Banerjee at the star…
- [Pseudo-education as a weapon: Beyond the ridiculous in linguistic prescriptivism](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/08/pseudo-education-as-a-weapon-beyond-the-ridiculous-in-linguistic-prescriptivism/): [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Teacher in primary school in northern Laos (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] Most of us are all too happy to repeat clichés abou…
- [Character Assasination through Metaphoric Pomposity: When one metaphor is not enough](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/07/character-assasination-through-metaphoric-pomposity-when-one-metaphor-is-not-enough/): George Lakoff is known for saying that "metaphors can kill" and he's not wrong. But in that, metaphors are no different from any other language. The simple amoral imperative "Ki…
- [Who-knows-what-how stories: The scientific and religious knowledge paradox](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/07/who-knows-what-how-stories-the-scientific-and-religious-knowledge-paradox/): I never meant to listen to this LSE debate on modern atheism because I'm bored of all the endless moralistic twaddle on both sides but it came on on my MP3 player and before I k…
- [RaAM 9 Abstract: Of Doves and Cocks: Collective Negotiation of a Metaphoric Seduction](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/03/raam-9-abstract-of-doves-and-cocks-collective-negotiation-of-a-metaphoric-seduction/): Given how long I've been studying metaphor (at least since 1991 when I first encountered Lakoff and Johnson's work and full on since 2000) it is amazing that I have yet to atten…
- [21st Century Educational Voodoo](https://metaphorhacker.net/2012/01/21st-century-educational-voodoo/): Jim Shimabukuro uses Rupert Murdoch's quote “We have a 21st century economy with a 19th century education system” to pose a question of what should 21st Century Education look l…
- [Moral Compass Metaphor Points to Surprising Places](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/11/moral-compass-metaphor-points-to-surprising-places/): I thought the moral compass metaphor has mostly left current political discourse but it just cropped up - this time pointing from left to right - as David Plouffe accused Mitt R…
- [There's more to memory than the brain: Psychologists run clever experiments, make trivial claims, take gullible internet by storm](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/07/theres-more-to-memory-than-the-brain-psychologists-run-clever-experiments-make-trivial-claims-take-gullible-internet-by-storm/): The online media are drawn to any "scientific" claims about the internet's influence on our nature as humans like flies to a pile of excrement. Sadly, in this metaphor, only the…
- [The death of a memory: Missing metaphors of remembering and forgetting?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/07/the-death-of-a-memory-missing-metaphors-of-remembering-and-forgetting/): I have forgotten a lot of things in my life. Names, faces, numbers, words, facts, events, quotes. Just like for anyone, forgetting is as much a part of my life as remembering. M…
- [Killer App is a bad metaphor for historical trends, good for pseudoteaching](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/06/killer-app-is-a-bad-metaphor-for-historical-trends-good-for-pseudoteaching/): Niall Ferguson wrote in The Guardian some time ago about how awful history education has become with these "new-fangled" 40-year-old methods like focusing on "history skills" th…
- [Language learning in literature as a source domain for generative metaphors about anything](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/06/language-learning-in-literature-as-a-source-domain-for-generative-metaphors-about-anything/): In my thinking about things human, I often like to draw on the domain of second language learning as the source of analogies. The problem is that relatively few people in the En…
- [You don't have to be a xenophobe to think Britain being an island matters, but it helps!](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/05/you-dont-have-to-be-a-xenophobe-to-think-britain-being-an-island-matters-but-it-helps/): I have a distinct feeling of writing about this somewhere but can't find it, so here's the rant redux. The images on which our thinking and reasoning are based can sometimes exe…
- [The natural logistics of life: The Internet really changes almost nothing](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/05/the-natural-logistics-of-life-the-internet-really-changes-almost-nothing/): This is a post that has been germinating for a long time. But it was most immediately inspired by Marshall Poe's article claiming that " The Internet Changes Nothing ". And as i…
- [When is subtle manipulation of data a flat out lie? Truth about Chinese prisons [UPDATE]](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/05/when-is-subtle-manipulation-of-data-a-flat-out-lie-truth-about-chinese-prisons/): I've been on a China kick lately ( reading and listening about its history and global position) and a crime public policy kick ( reading and listening to Mark Kleiman). I was st…
- [I object: A male feminist's view on the Duchess of Cambridge's Wedding dress](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/04/i-object-a-male-feminists-view-on-the-dutches-of-cambridges-wedding-dress/): Maybe I should be watching more TV but I honestly had no idea what Kate Middleton looked like. There must have been times I would have heard references to her and thought she wa…
- [Poetry without metaphor? Sure but can it darn your socks?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/04/poetry-without-metaphor-sure-but-can-it-darn-your-socks/): Over on the Language Log , Victor Mair puts to rest that all English expressions have to be tensed and thus prevent timeless poetry. He shares his translation of a 13th century …
- [Religion, if it exists, is negotiation of underdetermined metaphoric cognition [UPDATED]](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/04/religion-if-it-exists-is-negotiation-of-underdetermined-metaphoric-cognition/): Preamble I am an old atheist and a new agnostic. I don't believe in God in the old-fashioned Russellian way - if I don't believe in Krishna, Zeus, water sprites or the little te…
- [Life expectancy and the length and value of life: On a historical overimagination](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/04/life-expectancy-and-the-length-and-value-of-life-on-a-historical-overimagination/): About 10 years ago, I was looking through a book on populations changes in the Czech lands. It consisted of pretty much just tables of data with little commentary. But I was sho…
- [Why don't metaphorical hawks kill metaphorical doves?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/04/why-dont-metaphorical-hawks-kill-metaphorical-doves/): A very common metaphor in the political discourse on war is that of doves (peaceniks) and hawks (war-mongers). It has been around at least since the cold war. But it stops at "d…
- [Are we the masters of our morality? Yes!](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/03/are-we-the-masters-of-our-morality-yes/): We spend a lot of time worrying about the content to which we expose the young generation both individually and collectively. However, I am exceedingly coming to the conclusion …
- [Comedian identifies a critical flaw in structuralism: Are distinctive features like leather sleeves](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/03/comedian-identifies-a-critical-flaw-in-structuralism-are-distinctive-features-like-leather-sleeves/): I always thought this little bit by Demetri Martin highlights a crucial deficiency in any distinctive feature analysis. Demetri Martin: "I was at a party, and I saw a guy with a…
- [Epistemology as ethics: Decisions and judgments not methods and solutions for evidence-based practice](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/03/epistemology-as-ethics-decisions-and-judgments-not-methods-and-solutions-for-evidence-based-practice/): Show me the money! Or so the saying goes. Implying that talk is cheap and facts are the only thing that matters. But there is another thing we are being asked to do with money a…
- [Do science fiction writers dream of fascist dictatorships?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/03/do-science-fiction-writers-dream-of-fascist-dictatorships/): Some years ago in a book review , I made an off-the-cuff comment that thriller writers tend to be quite right-wing in their outlook whereas science fiction authors are much more…
- [The brain is a bad metaphor for language](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/03/the-brain-is-a-bad-metaphor-for-language/): Note: This was intended to be a brief note. Instead it developed into a monster post that took me two weeks of stolen moments to write. It's very light on non-blog references bu…
- [Literally: Triumph of pet peeve over matter](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/02/literally-triumph-of-pet-peeve-over-matter/): I have a number of pet peeves about how people use language. I am genuinely annoyed by the use of apostrophes before plural of numerals or acronyms like 50's or ABC's. But becau…
- [The most ridiculous metaphor of education courtesy of an economics professor](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/02/the-most-ridiculous-metaphor-of-education/): Acclaimed academics have policy agendas just like anybody else. And often they let them interfere with a straightforward critical analysis of their output. The monumental capaci…
- [Philosophers’ songbook #philbitescomp](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/08/philosophers-songbook-philbitescomp/): I was so inspired by the #philbitescomp twitter contest that I wrote a short history of philosophy in tweetable fragments of songs. Parmenides’ lament: I guess it will make a ch…
- [Metaphor is my co-pilot: How the literal and metaphorical rely on the same type of knowledge](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/08/metaphor-is-my-co-pilot-how-the-literal-and-metaphorical-rely-on-the-same-type-of-knowledge/): "Thanks" to experimental philosophy, we have a bit more evidence confirming, that what many people think about the special epistemological status of metaphor is bunk. We should …
- [The Tortoise and the Hare: Analogy for Academia in the Digital World?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/08/the-tortoise-and-the-hare-analogy-for-academia-in-the-digital-world/): Dan Cohen has decided to "crowdsource" (a fascinating blend, by the way) the title of his next book with the following instructions. The title should be a couplet like “The X an…
- [Why Chomsky doesn't count as a gifted linguist](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/08/why-chomsky-doesnt-count-as-a-gifted-linguist/): Somebody commented on the Language Log saying "of course [...] Chomsky was a massively gifted linguist" http://j.mp/9Q98Bx and for some reason, to use a Czech idiom, the handle …
- [Why ideas aren't enough to solve the Palestine-Israeli conflict](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/07/why-ideas-arent-enough-to-solve-the-palestine-israeli-conflict/): An advertising agency is trying to solve a bloody conflict . This is presumptuous on such as scale that it could be called idiotic. Quoth http://www.theimpossiblebrief.com : "Ra…
- [I write like… a new more sophisticated stripper name?](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/07/i-write-like-a-new-more-sophisticated-stripper-name/): Making connections between ourselves and other people no matter how arbitrary, is an incredibly popular communal as well as private activity. The many algorithms for generating …
- [What it's not about so much about](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/07/what-its-not-about-so-much/): [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="740" caption="XKCD on Tropes"] [/caption] via http://volokh.com/2010/07/06/analogies-metaphors-and-similes
- [Hacking a metaphor in five steps](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/07/hacking-a-metaphor-in-five-steps/): Preliminaries 1. Before you start metaphor hacking you must first accept that you don't have a choice but to speak in some sort of a figurative fashion. Almost nothing worth say…
- [What it’s all About](https://metaphorhacker.net/2010/07/what-its-all-about/): Metaphors are not just something extra we use when we're feeling poetic or at a loss for le mot juste, they are all over our minds, texts and conversations. Just like conjunctio…