5 ms·

It can be especially challenging to be both precise and comprehensible to people outside the field. Even if you can manage it, you really need to "read the room

It can be especially challenging to be both precise and comprehensible to people outside the field. Even if you can manage it, you really need to "read the room" to decide whether it's worthwhile.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
I've always found it to be a rewarding challenge. Jargon is the lazy way out; anyone can invent complex and smart-sounding labels for a concept[0]. But what's the point? It's much more fun to communicate something accurately, precisely (there is a difference!), and in the way the audience can understand. (I've found this often requires constructing a sequence of explanation - almost a kind of a narrative, that starts with an answer to the question "what are we trying to do and why do we care about it?", and is followed by introducing constraints, until it becomes obvious what the concept is, what its moving parts are, and why we actually care about it. But then again, a good analogy can cut through all that. In the article, "just like TV", that was perfect.) -- [0] - I mean, an average human is an adequate stochastic generator of surjections from words to concepts, under adequacy criterion defined as the capacity of ingroup/outgroup border delineation.
- tartoran 7y ago
  Jargon may serve the purpose of a "gatekeeper" in conversation, signaling who is allowed into certain forms of conversation. Jargon may serve this function by dictating to which direction or depth a conversation about or within the context of a certain field or profession will go.[25] For example, a conversation between two professionals in which one person has little previous interaction or knowledge of the other person could go one of at least two possible ways. One of the professionals (who the other professional does not know) does not use, or does not correctly use the jargon of their respective field, and is little regarded or remembered beyond small talk or fairly insignificant in this conversation. Or, if the person does use particular jargon (showing their knowledge in the field to be legitimate, educated, or of particular significance) the other professional then opens the conversation up in an in-depth or professional manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon

It can be especially challenging to be both precise and comprehensible to people outside the field. Even if you can manage it, you really need to "read the room" to decide whether it's worthwhile.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

I've always found it to be a rewarding challenge. Jargon is the lazy way out; anyone can invent complex and smart-sounding labels for a concept[0]. But what's the point? It's much more fun to communicate something accurately, precisely (there is a difference!), and in the way the audience can understand. (I've found this often requires constructing a sequence of explanation - almost a kind of a narrative, that starts with an answer to the question "what are we trying to do and why do we care about it?", and is followed by introducing constraints, until it becomes obvious what the concept is, what its moving parts are, and why we actually care about it. But then again, a good analogy can cut through all that. In the article, "just like TV", that was perfect.) -- [0] - I mean, an average human is an adequate stochastic generator of surjections from words to concepts, under adequacy criterion defined as the capacity of ingroup/outgroup border delineation.

tartoran 7y ago
Jargon may serve the purpose of a "gatekeeper" in conversation, signaling who is allowed into certain forms of conversation. Jargon may serve this function by dictating to which direction or depth a conversation about or within the context of a certain field or profession will go.[25] For example, a conversation between two professionals in which one person has little previous interaction or knowledge of the other person could go one of at least two possible ways. One of the professionals (who the other professional does not know) does not use, or does not correctly use the jargon of their respective field, and is little regarded or remembered beyond small talk or fairly insignificant in this conversation. Or, if the person does use particular jargon (showing their knowledge in the field to be legitimate, educated, or of particular significance) the other professional then opens the conversation up in an in-depth or professional manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon