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I share a similar skepticism of people the obfuscate the information with jargon. Any technical field will have its jargon, but the general concept can also (a

I share a similar skepticism of people the obfuscate the information with jargon. Any technical field will have its jargon, but the general concept can also (almost always) be explained in a more accessible way (like the hn comment and the article's introduction do). I've found people that rely on jargon exclusively sometimes don't actually understand the underlying concepts when you ask them questions that dig into it. It's one of the flags that someone is full of shit. Sometimes it's just targeting a narrow audience.

cedilla 5y ago
The space on posters is extremely limited. You condense several person-months into a few sentences and graphics, usually fewer words than OP used. At the same time, the research is usually very narrow. It's hard but possible to convey a general concept in few words, but if you study the properties of a subclass of a subclass of a subclass of a subclass of organic chemicals, you simply have to use terms of art. You don't have the space to explain what a ligand is, or what paramagnetism is, and you don't need to anyway, because your audience likely understands the concepts better than you do.
- gonehome 5y ago
  I think that makes total sense for a poster. It's when talking to people that I've noticed a difference. Some people have the jargon, but I can ask questions and learn from them because they can explain the underlying ideas. Some just hide behind the jargon and can't answer questions - often in the latter the impression I get is that their actual knowledge is pretty shallow. It's not always the case (sometimes people are just bad at communication in general), but it's the case often enough that it's a signal. It's also something I've noticed more in academia for whatever reason. My off the cuff guess is that both some cultural pressure towards signaling intelligence and prestige is coupled with being hard to understand, and that it's easier to hide with bullshit in academia than in industry. Not that you can't hide in industry too, but entire fields of academia that were total bullshit sometimes perpetuate for decades - companies typically die earlier than that.
bawolff 5y ago
Its not that they can't be explained more accessibly, its that they shouldn't. When you talk to other practitioners its more important to be precise and succint than it is to be accessible. Just like the opposite is true when talking to the general public. Different audiences have different needs. Some people do use excessive jargon to sound "smart" (and they are annoying). Anyone who knows what they are doing should be able to communicate in either mode depending on what the situation demands. Just because some people abuse jargon doesn't mean it doesn't have a valid place.
- gonehome 5y ago
  Yeah - I think we're in agreement.

cedilla 5y ago

The space on posters is extremely limited. You condense several person-months into a few sentences and graphics, usually fewer words than OP used. At the same time, the research is usually very narrow. It's hard but possible to convey a general concept in few words, but if you study the properties of a subclass of a subclass of a subclass of a subclass of organic chemicals, you simply have to use terms of art. You don't have the space to explain what a ligand is, or what paramagnetism is, and you don't need to anyway, because your audience likely understands the concepts better than you do.

gonehome 5y ago
I think that makes total sense for a poster. It's when talking to people that I've noticed a difference. Some people have the jargon, but I can ask questions and learn from them because they can explain the underlying ideas. Some just hide behind the jargon and can't answer questions - often in the latter the impression I get is that their actual knowledge is pretty shallow. It's not always the case (sometimes people are just bad at communication in general), but it's the case often enough that it's a signal. It's also something I've noticed more in academia for whatever reason. My off the cuff guess is that both some cultural pressure towards signaling intelligence and prestige is coupled with being hard to understand, and that it's easier to hide with bullshit in academia than in industry. Not that you can't hide in industry too, but entire fields of academia that were total bullshit sometimes perpetuate for decades - companies typically die earlier than that.

bawolff 5y ago

Its not that they can't be explained more accessibly, its that they shouldn't. When you talk to other practitioners its more important to be precise and succint than it is to be accessible. Just like the opposite is true when talking to the general public. Different audiences have different needs. Some people do use excessive jargon to sound "smart" (and they are annoying). Anyone who knows what they are doing should be able to communicate in either mode depending on what the situation demands. Just because some people abuse jargon doesn't mean it doesn't have a valid place.

gonehome 5y ago
Yeah - I think we're in agreement.