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What metaphors have people forgot were ever metaphors? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I watch this Zoe bee video a little over a month ago. Talking about how we use metaphors to grasp abstract concepts, how we use it in our daily life and how we use as map, in our politics and so on. Something imo she didn't focus enough is the metaphor we forget were ever metaphors(fun fact: the word "metaphor" has the world "meta"). This use one here, its like the three fishes with water. You see it so much you forgot it ever existed.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Honestly, our own sight is a kind of "metaphor" - what we see is a construction the brain creates to make sense of visual data, but it is not those visual data themselves, in some sense we only see in metaphors.

Maybe that bends the meaning of metaphor. Maybe better examples would be like skeumorphisms in graphical user interfaces, e.g. a trashbin on a desktop that you can drag files to. Obviously there is no literal trashbin, but I think people start to think in terms of those metaphors and forget there aren't actual files and folders and a trashbin, and when the computer behaves in a way that doesn't accord with those metaphors, it's frustrating and confusing for them.