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My jargon is your buzzword and the other way around. Qualification of importance and information content is subjective and contextual. Will one side or the othe

by cgio 5y ago

My jargon is your buzzword and the other way around. Qualification of importance and information content is subjective and contextual. Will one side or the other choose who the bullshitter is, or will both sides realise everyone is bullshitting to some extent as a social signalling tool. I gave a few quotes above from the author that would be inspiring for many a buzzword slingers.

danaris 5y ago
"Leveraging synergies to create strategic multiphasic solutions" is 100% buzzword. There's no real information being conveyed there. "Investigating the social structural factors underlying the speech community helps us to understand the practice of bullshitting" contains jargon, but is actually telling you something. (Probably. I don't 100% understand the jargon involved, but inferring from related things I do understand, this should probably be a coherent sentence. Regardless, the words being used can convey actual information.) Just because you can't understand something doesn't mean it's bullshit. It being bullshit means there was nothing to understand in the first place. It's conveying no meaningful information, just trying to make you think the person who said it knows what they're talking about. If you want to try to redefine "bullshit" to mean "stuff I can't understand", then you're welcome to do so, but it's going to be about as useful as Humpty Dumpty declaring that "glory" means "a nice knock-down argument".
- cgio 5y ago
  “Leveraging synergies to create strategic multiphasic solutions” a bit extreme I concur, no zero information content nevertheless. I can see that the solutions will be delivered in phases but with a strategic intent. Need more clarity on the link between synergies and phasing but that does not make it bullshit or absolve it from being bullshit either. Could be someone telling that he will align their team’s schedule with another team’s and therefore will split delivery in multiple phases. Could be someone throwing words in excuse for their failure to deliver a strategic project. Could be some random person saying this to demonstrate what bullshit is. There is no scenario there where information is not conveyed and that does not have anything to do with bullshitting in the end anyway. Bullshitting is not about the vocabulary but about its use as a means to conceal something by saturating the channel of communication. There is an intentionality assumption as the key defining criterion. Also the challenge that while information in a communication is “well” defined, concealment makes many assumptions about the social context of expectations for information flow.

by cgio 5y ago

danaris 5y ago

"Leveraging synergies to create strategic multiphasic solutions" is 100% buzzword. There's no real information being conveyed there. "Investigating the social structural factors underlying the speech community helps us to understand the practice of bullshitting" contains jargon, but is actually telling you something. (Probably. I don't 100% understand the jargon involved, but inferring from related things I do understand, this should probably be a coherent sentence. Regardless, the words being used can convey actual information.) Just because you can't understand something doesn't mean it's bullshit. It being bullshit means there was nothing to understand in the first place. It's conveying no meaningful information, just trying to make you think the person who said it knows what they're talking about. If you want to try to redefine "bullshit" to mean "stuff I can't understand", then you're welcome to do so, but it's going to be about as useful as Humpty Dumpty declaring that "glory" means "a nice knock-down argument".

cgio 5y ago
“Leveraging synergies to create strategic multiphasic solutions” a bit extreme I concur, no zero information content nevertheless. I can see that the solutions will be delivered in phases but with a strategic intent. Need more clarity on the link between synergies and phasing but that does not make it bullshit or absolve it from being bullshit either. Could be someone telling that he will align their team’s schedule with another team’s and therefore will split delivery in multiple phases. Could be someone throwing words in excuse for their failure to deliver a strategic project. Could be some random person saying this to demonstrate what bullshit is. There is no scenario there where information is not conveyed and that does not have anything to do with bullshitting in the end anyway. Bullshitting is not about the vocabulary but about its use as a means to conceal something by saturating the channel of communication. There is an intentionality assumption as the key defining criterion. Also the challenge that while information in a communication is “well” defined, concealment makes many assumptions about the social context of expectations for information flow.