11 ms·

> That's hyperbolic and, more importantly, incredibly imprecise. In common USA English, use of a figure like "10K" suggests imprecision - it's a magnitude of o

> That's hyperbolic and, more importantly, incredibly imprecise. In common USA English, use of a figure like "10K" suggests imprecision - it's a magnitude of order ballpark, a gesture at the logarithmic scale. This convention is useful because it's easy to remember a rough ballpark, but precise figures are going to quickly get muddied in details. It seems strange to complain about imprecision when someone has already clearly indicated that they're talking about a rough estimate.

nobody9999 4y ago
>In common USA English, use of a figure like "10K" suggests imprecision - it's a magnitude of order ballpark, a gesture at the logarithmic scale. Really? As a life-long resident of the US, native US English speaker, and the child of a native US English speaker and a long-time resident of the US from another English-speaking country (UK) (both with post-baccalaureate degrees), I never heard that from anyone except you. Not teachers in primary or secondary school, nor in college. Nor have I seen that in any of the many usage guides I've read over the past half-century or so. Yes, "Forty days" in the Abrahamic[0] tradition is meant to be imprecise (i.e., meaning "a long time"), but the bible/torah/quran aren't guides to modern English, are they? Perhaps you could enlighten this American ignoramus as to the correctness of US English idiomatic phrasing in this light. It would be most appreciated. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions Edit: Clarified prose.
- handoflixue 4y ago
  I'm really not clear what you're asking, so all I can say is that nice round numbers are usually a ballpark estimate, while more precise figures suggest some actual calculations were involved. To be a bit technical: if there's only 1 significant figure, then you should take the number with a fair amount of salt. Unfortunately social rules like this usually aren't well documented. It's mostly a statistics thing: very few calculations produce an exactly even result, so more often than not someone has rounded things off. If you want to get really fancy you can start using context and tone to further infer whether someone is throwing out a ballpark estimate or a precise number, but that's well beyond the scope of a HN comment
  - nobody9999 4y ago
    >that's well beyond the scope of a HN comment Exactly my point. And even if I wanted to, there's wasn't any tone or context to draw on -- just a flat assertion. I'd add that, at least to me, a "ballpark" figure would be something reasonably close to an actual value e.g., $25 ballpark vs. $27.99. In the case to which I replied, it was more like "ballpark" $25, actual $9.99. Which "ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport."[0] [0] with apologies to Quentin Tarantino. Edit: Added an additional thought and some context.

nobody9999 4y ago

>In common USA English, use of a figure like "10K" suggests imprecision - it's a magnitude of order ballpark, a gesture at the logarithmic scale. Really? As a life-long resident of the US, native US English speaker, and the child of a native US English speaker and a long-time resident of the US from another English-speaking country (UK) (both with post-baccalaureate degrees), I never heard that from anyone except you. Not teachers in primary or secondary school, nor in college. Nor have I seen that in any of the many usage guides I've read over the past half-century or so. Yes, "Forty days" in the Abrahamic[0] tradition is meant to be imprecise (i.e., meaning "a long time"), but the bible/torah/quran aren't guides to modern English, are they? Perhaps you could enlighten this American ignoramus as to the correctness of US English idiomatic phrasing in this light. It would be most appreciated. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions Edit: Clarified prose.

handoflixue 4y ago
I'm really not clear what you're asking, so all I can say is that nice round numbers are usually a ballpark estimate, while more precise figures suggest some actual calculations were involved. To be a bit technical: if there's only 1 significant figure, then you should take the number with a fair amount of salt. Unfortunately social rules like this usually aren't well documented. It's mostly a statistics thing: very few calculations produce an exactly even result, so more often than not someone has rounded things off. If you want to get really fancy you can start using context and tone to further infer whether someone is throwing out a ballpark estimate or a precise number, but that's well beyond the scope of a HN comment
- nobody9999 4y ago
  >that's well beyond the scope of a HN comment Exactly my point. And even if I wanted to, there's wasn't any tone or context to draw on -- just a flat assertion. I'd add that, at least to me, a "ballpark" figure would be something reasonably close to an actual value e.g., $25 ballpark vs. $27.99. In the case to which I replied, it was more like "ballpark" $25, actual $9.99. Which "ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport."[0] [0] with apologies to Quentin Tarantino. Edit: Added an additional thought and some context.