> Obviously, every formula can be transformed into this form, by applying the rules of Boolean algebra.
Is it so obvious? Why do so many engineers write with these sort of modifiers (obviously, just, of course, etc.)?
Edit: I am assuming no ill intent from the author. I also use these sorts of modifiers without thinking about them much when writing. I am just curious as to why we as engineers call deeply technical things obvious when they are not.
Usually this is a polite way to say that proof/derivation is too long to fit on this page, please look somewhere else if you are interested.
Notable example would be Lev Landau's Theoretical Physics. If you see "obviously" there it is probably not obvious at all and can take good few hours to derive the formula.
It discusses that there can be different ways sharing information comes across. For some people, sharing information demonstration that you're smart enough to know the thing. For others, sharing information is for others' benefit.
I wouldn't prefer to interpret "obviously" as "you're not as smart/cool as me if you don't know this", but I can see why there are examples that could come across like that. (I'd sooner interpret it as "I'm not claiming to be smart by saying this").
The good faith interpretation is that the author means in the sense of “it follows then that” as opposed to “if you didn’t realize this upon reading the previous section then something is wrong”
That sounds like something that could be solved with a linter for prose. Though, I can't think of the search terms that would let me find such a solution, if it exists.
Is it so obvious? Why do so many engineers write with these sort of modifiers (obviously, just, of course, etc.)?
Edit: I am assuming no ill intent from the author. I also use these sorts of modifiers without thinking about them much when writing. I am just curious as to why we as engineers call deeply technical things obvious when they are not.