4 ms·
I just want to point out this is not a royal "we". It's a regular "we". Royal "we" is when you say "we" but mean a singular person, yourself. Here, the author d
by Xirdus 2mo ago
I just want to point out this is not a royal "we". It's a regular "we". Royal "we" is when you say "we" but mean a singular person, yourself. Here, the author does actually mean multiple people beyond themselves - like you pointed out, they claim to speak for all software engineers.
- gfody 2mo agothe wicked we
- lmm 2mo agoNo, that is exactly GP's complaint. Their whole point is that OP has written things like "we throw everything at a model and hope it gives us what we imagined, without ever having to understand how any of it actually works" when the honest statement would be "I throw everything at a model and hope it gives me what I imagined, without ever having to understand how any of it actually works".
- Xirdus 2mo agoYes I understand the complaint. It's just that "royal we" means something else.
- lmm 2mo agoTalking about the "royal we" is a correct, established (if somewhat sarcastic) way to complain about this kind of usage. It highlights the presumptiveness of the author in their use of "we".
- BeetleB 2mo agoI'm pretty sure the author intended it as a regular "we".
- litoE 2mo agoThere's also the wifely we, meaning "you", as in "we need to take out the trash."
- PyWoody 2mo agoMy dad's reply to that was always, "We? What, do you have a mouse in your pocket?"
- latexr 2mo ago> "We? What, do you have a mouse in your pocket?" Suggested response: “I do, but the poor thing is not strong enough. No no, I meant one of us needs to do it. Please do go ahead, if you don’t mind, as I’m a bit busy feeding the mouse.”
- ButlerianJihad 2mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosism
- latexr 2mo ago> they claim to speak for all software engineers. I have reread the post and see no such claim. They are using “we” to refer to the significant subset of humanity which fits the description, not “all software engineers”. If someone says “we are addicted to fast food” (or social media, or what have you), we can understand they don’t mean literally everyone. Some people never even eat it, so they couldn’t be addicted, but there’s enough people who do to make the claim. It’s a generalisation.