> I don't know why someone has to use 'rectified linear unit' to describe this simple operation. To quote some snarky comedian whose name escapes me, because w

> I don't know why someone has to use 'rectified linear unit' to describe this simple operation. To quote some snarky comedian whose name escapes me, because words have meanings. The way I understand it, "rectified" here has an analogous in physics. Beyond saving characters, it also tells that the purpose of this function is similar to the one people use when dealing with current. If I were either a physicist or someone used to deal with wave functions, the title alone would tell me everything I need to know. And I bet the type of people who care about activation functions are the type of people who knows what rectifiers are. I would argue that learning NNs includes learning the jargon needed to speak about them, the same way learning the meaning of "pointer" is required for programming. On the other hand, maybe I'm just rationalizing the time I spent learning jargon.