4 ms·

I'm rather bemused by this whole thing, I'd be intrigued to know the demographics of the people who take such, issue with use of swear words. Perhaps it's an A

I'm rather bemused by this whole thing, I'd be intrigued to know the demographics of the people who take such, issue with use of swear words. Perhaps it's an American thing, but in Britain I'm not aware of anyone I know who'd react in hysterics at the thought of a strong word appearing in something as public as a slide deck! Swearing at someone can be extremely rude, but using such words passively to add emphasis seems perfectly normal to me. The following video sums it up nicely IMO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM&feature=youtu...

tomcreighton 15y ago
I'd honestly like to know too. In my _professional_ life, I am not aware of anyone who would bat an eyelash at swearing in a professional presentation. Indeed, some of the best panels I've attended at well-known conferences have been pretty rough, language-wise. But they were, indeed, great panels! It seems like about half of the commenters here are having trouble parsing the relationship between content and delivery.
stevelosh 15y ago
With subtitles: http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/Rll5EWT3VTz1/info/ http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/Rll5EWT3VTz1/inf...
Lewisham 15y ago
As a Brit (although I live in America), I don't understand your comment at all. British society, as a whole, is absolutely infatuated with your persona (I am guessing as an extension of class). I would never, ever, ever swear in a presentation in the UK. I might do it in the US. Remember: it's not the word that's the problem it's that it makes it sound like you don't understand the social conventions of the position you're in. If you're delivering a professional presentation to people you know, swear away. If you're doing it at a conference with people you don't, you appear clueless. It's the vocabulary version of turning up to a business of suits in t-shirt and shorts (or vice versa). If you're particularly powerful, you can get away with it, like Zuck does. If you're not, you can't. Honestly, I'm surprised holman stuck strongly to this. It's childish, and, more importantly, it's fake. Swearing in the slides is fake. As the original blog post that pointed this out mentioned: "fucking" almost always has no semantic payload at all. None. It's an exclamation mark. If you want to build up some sort of chummy relationship by using swear words, put it in your spoken text. Putting it in the slides? Tacky. Clueless.
- buff-a 15y ago
  I'm British too. Went to Queens' college too, like Mr Fry. Don't have a problem with it and can't think of any of my friends or peers that would. Yes, there's a whole ream of uptight wankers who make it their business to be proper. There are even TV comedies about such awful people. [1] Don't think you speak for all of us. it makes it sound like you don't understand the social conventions of the position you're in LOL. Yes, we're all for knowing our place in the world here at HN! [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Up_Appearances http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Up_Appearances
tkahn6 15y ago
> Perhaps it's an American thing, but in Britain I'm not aware of anyone I know who'd react in hysterics at the thought of a strong word appearing in something as public as a slide deck! Never once has this discussion been about the offensive nature of swear words in slide decks or presentations. It's about whether or not swearing adds value or is just used to cover up a speaker's inadequacies in capturing the audience's attention.

tomcreighton 15y ago

I'd honestly like to know too. In my _professional_ life, I am not aware of anyone who would bat an eyelash at swearing in a professional presentation. Indeed, some of the best panels I've attended at well-known conferences have been pretty rough, language-wise. But they were, indeed, great panels! It seems like about half of the commenters here are having trouble parsing the relationship between content and delivery.

stevelosh 15y ago

With subtitles: http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/Rll5EWT3VTz1/info/ http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/Rll5EWT3VTz1/inf...

Lewisham 15y ago

As a Brit (although I live in America), I don't understand your comment at all. British society, as a whole, is absolutely infatuated with your persona (I am guessing as an extension of class). I would never, ever, ever swear in a presentation in the UK. I might do it in the US. Remember: it's not the word that's the problem it's that it makes it sound like you don't understand the social conventions of the position you're in. If you're delivering a professional presentation to people you know, swear away. If you're doing it at a conference with people you don't, you appear clueless. It's the vocabulary version of turning up to a business of suits in t-shirt and shorts (or vice versa). If you're particularly powerful, you can get away with it, like Zuck does. If you're not, you can't. Honestly, I'm surprised holman stuck strongly to this. It's childish, and, more importantly, it's fake. Swearing in the slides is fake. As the original blog post that pointed this out mentioned: "fucking" almost always has no semantic payload at all. None. It's an exclamation mark. If you want to build up some sort of chummy relationship by using swear words, put it in your spoken text. Putting it in the slides? Tacky. Clueless.

buff-a 15y ago
I'm British too. Went to Queens' college too, like Mr Fry. Don't have a problem with it and can't think of any of my friends or peers that would. Yes, there's a whole ream of uptight wankers who make it their business to be proper. There are even TV comedies about such awful people. [1] Don't think you speak for all of us. it makes it sound like you don't understand the social conventions of the position you're in LOL. Yes, we're all for knowing our place in the world here at HN! [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Up_Appearances http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Up_Appearances

tkahn6 15y ago

> Perhaps it's an American thing, but in Britain I'm not aware of anyone I know who'd react in hysterics at the thought of a strong word appearing in something as public as a slide deck! Never once has this discussion been about the offensive nature of swear words in slide decks or presentations. It's about whether or not swearing adds value or is just used to cover up a speaker's inadequacies in capturing the audience's attention.