science

Steven Poole

Steven Poole is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Steven Poole rather than just read about it. In short: Steven Poole (born 1972) is a British author, journalist, and video game theorist. He particularly concerns himself with the abuse of language and has written two books on the subject: Unspeak (2006) and Who Touched Base in My Thought Shower?

Key takeaways

Steven Poole belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Steven Poole to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Steven Poole from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Steven Poole (born 1972) is a British author, journalist, and video game theorist. He particularly concerns himself with the abuse of language and has written two books on the subject: Unspeak (2006) and Who Touched Base in My Thought Shower? (2013).

Biography Poole studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has subsequently written for publications including The Independent, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sunday Times, and the New Statesman. He has published two books and currently writes a weekly nonfiction book-review column in the Saturday Guardian called Et Cetera, as well as regular longer book reviews, plus a monthly column in Edge magazine. Poole was invited to deliver the opening keynote address at the 2006 Sydney Writers' Festival, and also gave a keynote at the 2008 Future and Reality of Gaming conference in Vienna.

Books

Trigger Happy and Trigger Happy 2.0 Trigger Happy was published in 2000 by 4th Estate in the UK (with the subtitle 'The Inner Life of Videogames') and by Arcade Publishing in the US (with the subtitle 'Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution'). Investigating the aesthetics of videogames, Poole notes similarities and differences to other artforms such as cinema, painting and literature, and finally offers a description of games as semiotic systems that may provoke 'aesthetic wonder'. In 2007, Poole released a PDF version of the book for free download on his website, calling it an 'experiment' in the tip-jar model for writers. In 2013, a collection of Poole's Edge columns was published as Trigger Happy 2.0.

Unspeak Unspeak was published in 2006 by Little, Brown in the UK, and by Grove Press in the US. The second UK edition (2007) has the subtitle 'Words Are Weapons'. It is a book about language in contemporary politics, structured around buzzphrases, for which he names 'community', climate change/global warming, and 'war on terror' as examples. The book was shortlisted for Index on Censorship's T.R. Fyvel Award in 2006. According to Poole, 'unspeak' is related to framing: it is a rhetorical way of naming an issue so as to avoid having to argue one's position, and to render the opposing position inexpressible. In a negative review of the book in the Guardian, former British government communications chief Alastair Campbell wrote, 'I am not quite sure what Poole is trying to say.' Since publication of the book, the author has continued to discuss new examples of unspeak at the book's dedicated blog.

Who Touched Base in My Thought Shower? Who Touched Base in My Thought Shower? was released in October 2013 by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. The book was expanded from an article written for The Guardian and ridicules workplace jargon. The Spectator thought it "does show occasional signs of having been written in a rush, but it's a valuable glossary to corporate life and demonstrates the empty-headed arrogance of what passes for management style."

Rethink: the Surprising History of Ideas Rethink: the Surprising History of Ideas was released in 2016 by. Among other subjects, it takes up the life-cycle of bad ideas and argues that retooling past ideas often leads to significant progress and innovation.

Journalism Poole writes book reviews and literary and cultural essays for numerous publications, including a long obituary of Jean Baudrillard for The Guardian, and a critique of the work of Alain de Botton.

Media In 2004, Poole presented a television documentary for BBC Four called Trigger Happy: The Invincible Rise of the Video Game, based on his book. He also appeared in the documentary Thumb Candy, and has guested on BBC Radio 4 and other outlets in numerous discussions about language, including an appearance on the Today programme in 2009 talking about the term "swine flu".

Other activities Poole is also a composer of music for documentary and short films, including the short film EVOL.

References

External links Steven Poole's official website Steven Poole at IMDb Steven Poole's articles for The Guardian Review of Unspeak in The Washington Post Review of Unspeak at Slate

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Steven Poole

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Steven Poole claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Steven Poole before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Steven Poole ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Steven Poole

In research: Steven Poole appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Steven Poole in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Steven Poole is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1972 births, Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, British male journalists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Steven Poole outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Steven Poole in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Steven Poole means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Steven Poole out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steven Poole in simple terms?

Why does Steven Poole matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Steven Poole?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Steven Poole.