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I don't think the alternatives given are necessarily synonymous though, so simply increase the amount of jargon. > Abundance of caution -> Circumspection To
by jimnotgym 6y ago
I don't think the alternatives given are necessarily synonymous though, so simply increase the amount of jargon.
> Abundance of caution -> Circumspection
To me 'Abundance of caution' euphemistically implies being rather too cautious
> ASAP -> Betimes
ASAP is in such common usage it hardly qualifies as jargon at all.
> Change agent -> Efficient cause
To me a change agent is someone else you bring in to be a positive voice for change, often because the person wanting change is outnumbered by naysayers. It is funny how when the consultant says exactly what you were shot down for saying it carries more weight, for instance. I think the agency is important in the meaning.
> Holding pattern -> Keeping watch
I don't think these mean the same thing at all. This is a mixture of aviation and military metaphor. A squadron of jets ready to bomb a target, but told to delay, might fly a holding pattern, ready to attack when told without further preparation. A sentry back at base is keeping watch, but would require significant preperation, and a long walk, before She could mount an attack on an enemy base. Imagine a product launch gets pushed back a few hours, and you want the web developers to pause, but not move on to other things, that is analogous to the jets, but not the sentry.
Likewise, to repent suggests a level of reproach or regret not indicated in a pivot.
Streamlining an aircraft, by adding retractable landing gear for instance, can make it rather more complicated not simpler. It may make it faster and more manoeuvrable whilst giving it greater fuel economy. Adding an ERP at a company may make it much more complicated (even though that complication is rather hidden from many users) but it may also allow for lower inventory by allowing advanced JIT or Throughput Accounting techniques. That is a streamlined operation, not a simpler one. I'm sure some people misuse the analogy to say 'Streamlined' when they mean, 'we fired half of them', but that is no reason to restrict it.
- Jermaine_Jabi 6y agoASAP has the unfortunate quality of being all caps, in addition to being a directive, so it always looks to me like an order AND being shouted at me.
- jimnotgym 6y agoIt usually is used to convey a sense of urgency, so why wouldn't that be desirable? Perhaps you have one of those unfortunate people in your organisation for which every directive is urgent?
- chrisweekly 6y agoRelated tangent: I wish "AMAP" (as much as possible) would catch on, too.
- gnicholas 6y agoI once worked with someone who used the abbreviation GMTA for “great minds think alike”. It was a particularly funny habit, seeing as how no one ever deciphered it without help.
- chrisweekly 6y agoI thought GMTA stood for Great Minds Teach Acronyms
- archduck 6y agoASAP, to my ears, always connotes urgency, and I'd even go so far as to say that its usage without this sense is universally dispreferred, if not outright misusage. Or at least I used to think so ... until a misunderstanding arose because our CEO did, in fact, use it in such a way (i.e. "whenever you are able"). H. Paul Grice (the four maxims guy) calls connotations like these implicatures, extra propositions which are "implicated" (implied) in addition to "what is said" (the utterance), and they can be conversational or conventional. Conversational implicatures are cancellable, meaning that they can be disavowed, whereas conventional implicatures cannot. So for instance, "I used to do a lot of drugs. I still do, but I used to too" cancels the implicature which arises from "used to" ("not anymore"). After consistent usage, however, conversational implicatures may become conventional and cannot be cancelled - they have moved from the pragmatic level to the semantic level (i.e. they're part of the meaning of the utterance itself rather than derived contextually). The point being, is it even possible to cancel the urgency connotation of ASAP? Is it not just outright weird to say, "I want these TPS reports done ASAP - but no rush"? My intuition says that ASAP necessarily connotes urgency, due to its consistent usage in this sense, whereas "as soon as possible" only optionally does (so it's much more acceptable to say, "I want these GPS reports done as soon as possible - but no rush"). Super weird coming from our CEO, because otherwise everything is in fact urgent (sigh...).