4 ms·
Why do people use the word "pivot" to mean "change direction"? The word pivot has many meanings but most imply some sort of stability or immobility. It can me
by ta12121 14y ago
Why do people use the word "pivot" to mean "change direction"?
The word pivot has many meanings but most imply some sort of stability or immobility. It can mean a physical peg or stick around which things turn, or the fulcrum of a lever which is also stationary. According to wiktionary it can also mean turning with one foot on the ground or to turn in a single spot.
I can somewhat understand when startups like to use cool lingo to imply how agile they are by being able to change direction in an instant, although I still find it annoying.
But Microsoft? Pivot? As in change direction nearly instantaneously? The answer is no. The title itself acknowledges this, since it includes the word "starting". If you're "starting" to pivot you're not pivoting. You're changing direction.
- czr80 14y agoI sympathise, but I fear the battle is lost :-) For a company, pivot = change direction. On the article: this is truly a big bet by Microsoft and fascinating to watch.
- bztzt 14y agoI always thought the "one foot on the ground" was what it meant. You figure out a way to keep about half of your current strategy or assets or whatever fixed but applied in a new way to a new context, and change/recreate the other half. This is sort of what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8, they are keeping about half of their OS the same while radically changing the other half. Compare with music theory for example - "pivot tones" are a way of making a smooth connection between chords in a harmonic progression, by keeping one or more notes the same while changing the others. Through a sequence of chord changes you can end up somewhere harmonically radically different from where you started, yet still keep each individual step smoothly connected to what came before.
- yread 14y agopiv·ot noun \ˈpi-vət\ 1 : a shaft or pin on which something turns http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pivot?show=0&t=1340690904 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pivot?show=0&t... I always imagined it as turning (pivoting) on one leg to change the direction you're walking
- ta12121 14y agoWhich is precisely something a behemoth like Microsoft can't do. Can an oil tanker pivot?