4 ms·

This is like me when I point out that someone has misused a word. I look over and chuckle something like: "they said utilized, but they meant used", or "they sa

This is like me when I point out that someone has misused a word. I look over and chuckle something like: "they said utilized, but they meant used", or "they said nonplussed, when they meant unimpressed". The other person rightly looks at me like the mean-spirited pedant I am. I don't know who this guy is, but he's clearly been immersed in music his entire life, and is playing a different game with different rules than everyone else is when it comes to listening to music. I respect his knowledge, I sympathize with his frustration, but I just don't care enough to make the same distinctions.

deleted 3y ago
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jraph 3y ago
I would not compare those two situations. When you are pointing out someone has misused a word, that's superficial. The word is wrong, but every one understood the actual meaning. I would only do this if I think it may interest the people around and could lead to an interesting discussion, but would remain silent about this otherwise. Unless, of course, there's a real (risk of) misunderstanding (then, people are thankful you lifted the misunderstanding, instead of being annoyed). If you just say "what he actually meant" when everybody got what he actually meant (even you, since you were able to suggest the right word), that probably just feels pedantic indeed. While he is pointing out the difference between being out of tune with itself, or with another instrument, and out of tune in general because he means different things, different actual concepts, and needs the other musicians to understand the difference when using these terms, because their meaning is indeed widely different. He is clarifying what he, himself, means when he says out of tune, trying to fix an actual misunderstanding. tl;dr: in one situation, the actual intended meaning is likely going through correctly even if the words are incorrect. In the other, the meaning is lost because of imprecise understanding of the term. The first one is not really problematic. The second one is critically problematic. Now, of course, he could probably have clarified this thing in a 5 times shorter video (this is no rocket science) without making a mountain out of a molehill, and him pointing out out of tune things to people who don't care would probably feel equally pedantic.
- jeremyjh 3y ago
  > Now, of course, he could probably have clarified this thing in a 5 times shorter video (this is no rocket science) without making a mountain out of a molehill, and him pointing out out of tune things to people who don't care would probably feel equally pedantic. I think Youtube is a significant portion of his income these days, which means every decision he makes about content - how long - how inane - how petty - is driven by his experience with what ships the eyeballs.
  - jraph 3y ago
    Yes, of course. I assumed that he was acting like this with his relatives (which I hope he doesn't, unless it entertains them), but it's probable that it's just for us.
ryandrake 3y ago
I don't think you need to be immersed in music to be able to tell if a guitar's string is out of tune. Just listen to someone play a major chord (you don't even need to know what a major chord is), and if it sounds vaguely wrong to you, then you know one of the strings is out of tune. That's all there is to it. Your example about word misuse is probably the closest to what's going on here. Here we have someone who cares about some topic, sees other people who don't know something, hopes to educate them, and then finds out that they just don't care about the topic as much as he does. People use words all the time that don't mean what they think they mean, and they don't care. It doesn't make them feel good or bad when you correct them, it's just that using the right word has never occurred to them and doesn't really matter to them. The latest word misuse that grinds my gears I've seen with my daughter and her friends is "on read". As in "He left my text message on read." Don't you mean "unread"?? "Whatever!" I'm thinking to myself: NOT WHATEVER. THOSE WORDS MEAN TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS!!! ARGH!
- dpkirchner 3y ago
  > The latest word misuse that grinds my gears I've seen with my daughter and her friends is "on read". I believe they do mean "on read," not "unread". On read (to the best of my knowledge) means the recipient saw the message but didn't reply. This only applies to chat systems that send read receipts.
  - smegsicle 3y ago
    what a twist
- jeremyjh 3y ago
  Isn't this just how language evolves? Its why Old English is barely intelligible to us today.
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    Language evolves, but slowly over generations. Not year to year. When someone is simply using a word incorrectly, they're using a word incorrectly. They're not evolving anything. If I say, "Can you grab that book over their?" or mistake Aloud for Allowed, this is not language evolving--I'm just using the wrong word.

deleted 3y ago

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jraph 3y ago

I would not compare those two situations. When you are pointing out someone has misused a word, that's superficial. The word is wrong, but every one understood the actual meaning. I would only do this if I think it may interest the people around and could lead to an interesting discussion, but would remain silent about this otherwise. Unless, of course, there's a real (risk of) misunderstanding (then, people are thankful you lifted the misunderstanding, instead of being annoyed). If you just say "what he actually meant" when everybody got what he actually meant (even you, since you were able to suggest the right word), that probably just feels pedantic indeed. While he is pointing out the difference between being out of tune with itself, or with another instrument, and out of tune in general because he means different things, different actual concepts, and needs the other musicians to understand the difference when using these terms, because their meaning is indeed widely different. He is clarifying what he, himself, means when he says out of tune, trying to fix an actual misunderstanding. tl;dr: in one situation, the actual intended meaning is likely going through correctly even if the words are incorrect. In the other, the meaning is lost because of imprecise understanding of the term. The first one is not really problematic. The second one is critically problematic. Now, of course, he could probably have clarified this thing in a 5 times shorter video (this is no rocket science) without making a mountain out of a molehill, and him pointing out out of tune things to people who don't care would probably feel equally pedantic.

jeremyjh 3y ago
> Now, of course, he could probably have clarified this thing in a 5 times shorter video (this is no rocket science) without making a mountain out of a molehill, and him pointing out out of tune things to people who don't care would probably feel equally pedantic. I think Youtube is a significant portion of his income these days, which means every decision he makes about content - how long - how inane - how petty - is driven by his experience with what ships the eyeballs.
- jraph 3y ago
  Yes, of course. I assumed that he was acting like this with his relatives (which I hope he doesn't, unless it entertains them), but it's probable that it's just for us.

ryandrake 3y ago

I don't think you need to be immersed in music to be able to tell if a guitar's string is out of tune. Just listen to someone play a major chord (you don't even need to know what a major chord is), and if it sounds vaguely wrong to you, then you know one of the strings is out of tune. That's all there is to it. Your example about word misuse is probably the closest to what's going on here. Here we have someone who cares about some topic, sees other people who don't know something, hopes to educate them, and then finds out that they just don't care about the topic as much as he does. People use words all the time that don't mean what they think they mean, and they don't care. It doesn't make them feel good or bad when you correct them, it's just that using the right word has never occurred to them and doesn't really matter to them. The latest word misuse that grinds my gears I've seen with my daughter and her friends is "on read". As in "He left my text message on read." Don't you mean "unread"?? "Whatever!" I'm thinking to myself: NOT WHATEVER. THOSE WORDS MEAN TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS!!! ARGH!

dpkirchner 3y ago
> The latest word misuse that grinds my gears I've seen with my daughter and her friends is "on read". I believe they do mean "on read," not "unread". On read (to the best of my knowledge) means the recipient saw the message but didn't reply. This only applies to chat systems that send read receipts.
- smegsicle 3y ago
  what a twist
jeremyjh 3y ago
Isn't this just how language evolves? Its why Old English is barely intelligible to us today.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  Language evolves, but slowly over generations. Not year to year. When someone is simply using a word incorrectly, they're using a word incorrectly. They're not evolving anything. If I say, "Can you grab that book over their?" or mistake Aloud for Allowed, this is not language evolving--I'm just using the wrong word.