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It's very odd that 'baby talk' is professional. I don't think society was always this way. I also respect anyone who questions why this is the case. Assuming it

It's very odd that 'baby talk' is professional. I don't think society was always this way. I also respect anyone who questions why this is the case. Assuming it's an efficiency, we should be able to justify this behavior.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
I'd be surprised if there was any place or time where people didn't placate and humor those with power over them. The article's label of "babytalk" for this behavior just obscures the observation; it would be like calling typical code review language "fussytalk" and then expounding on how fussy programmers are.
monkeycantype 6y ago
I worked as a software developer, in a non software company, I sat in an odd spot off to the side half way up the org chart. The non software people climbed the hierarchy not because they are competent at their jobs, in fact a highly competent person will often be passed over for promotion because they are useful where they are - but because of how they negotiated very complex social networks. A senior manager, my manager at the time felt that with very little skill to separate the people working at the company, ascendancy was about positioning yourself in bullying networks, and he described this this kind of 'baby talk' as a subservience signal in which you were surrendering to and accepting a manager as your patron and any further advancement you made was by their grace. If you chose to do the 'honest talk' with someone senior to you, it came with a risk and a potential reward, you had to do it well enough to convince them you were a worthy formidable peer and an ally. If you did it unconvincingly you would be struck down. This seemed to be a widely held worldview and therefore more or less the social reality in the non software parts of the business. I was free to do 'honest talk' because as a software person, I was clearly to the side of the game, it wasn't really possible for me to fall or climb too far.
- missingrib 6y ago
  I don't really know what any of the things you're referring to in this comment mean. Can you expand on what "babytalk" is, maybe with an example? What is a "bullying network"? And what is "honest talk"?
  - navane 6y ago
    Its explained in the linked article, better than i could.
  - CRConrad 6y ago
    User monkeycantype's comment discusses the article that this HN thread is about; it is linked at the top of the page. The terms you ask about are from that article. To participate in a discussion about it, it helps to read it first.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

I'd be surprised if there was any place or time where people didn't placate and humor those with power over them. The article's label of "babytalk" for this behavior just obscures the observation; it would be like calling typical code review language "fussytalk" and then expounding on how fussy programmers are.

monkeycantype 6y ago

I worked as a software developer, in a non software company, I sat in an odd spot off to the side half way up the org chart. The non software people climbed the hierarchy not because they are competent at their jobs, in fact a highly competent person will often be passed over for promotion because they are useful where they are - but because of how they negotiated very complex social networks. A senior manager, my manager at the time felt that with very little skill to separate the people working at the company, ascendancy was about positioning yourself in bullying networks, and he described this this kind of 'baby talk' as a subservience signal in which you were surrendering to and accepting a manager as your patron and any further advancement you made was by their grace. If you chose to do the 'honest talk' with someone senior to you, it came with a risk and a potential reward, you had to do it well enough to convince them you were a worthy formidable peer and an ally. If you did it unconvincingly you would be struck down. This seemed to be a widely held worldview and therefore more or less the social reality in the non software parts of the business. I was free to do 'honest talk' because as a software person, I was clearly to the side of the game, it wasn't really possible for me to fall or climb too far.

missingrib 6y ago
I don't really know what any of the things you're referring to in this comment mean. Can you expand on what "babytalk" is, maybe with an example? What is a "bullying network"? And what is "honest talk"?
- navane 6y ago
  Its explained in the linked article, better than i could.
- CRConrad 6y ago
  User monkeycantype's comment discusses the article that this HN thread is about; it is linked at the top of the page. The terms you ask about are from that article. To participate in a discussion about it, it helps to read it first.