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Doesn't "Probably not, he said. At least, not as quickly." and "Perhaps. Eventually." mean essentially the same thing?
by gotwilly 8y ago
Doesn't "Probably not, he said. At least, not as quickly." and "Perhaps. Eventually." mean essentially the same thing?
- arcticbull 8y agoIMO its a different tone. The first says "no. well... maybe..." [I don't want to undercut the value of the property] whereas the other says "yes. well... maybe..." [I don't want to appear unappreciative of the resources of the company that owns mine].
- whytaka 8y agoTo be annoyingly precise, the second says: "Maybe, well... yes."
- arcticbull 8y agoFair! :) I see how you read it that way; to me perhaps is corporate speak for a noncommittal yes, and eventually is a way of making it even less committal by specifying a long timeline. I mean, anything could happen eventually, it just depends on when you mean.
- jovial_cavalier 8y agoNYT "journalists" do not care if the drivel they produce even makes sense, they only care to impart a tone. In this instance, they desired to use this as a setup for a confrontational dynamic between Zuckerberg and the original founders, even though they essentially are saying the same thing.
- diminoten 8y agoYeah, the whole article felt like it hinged on the difference between those two statements, but I was struck by how similar they actually were.