
Pro (noun.), abbreviation of Professional: born 1798, died 2019, aged 221 - Contax
https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/1647317722/pro-adj-abbreviation-of-professional-born-1798-died-2019-aged-221
======
mikestew
For you youngsters just tuning in, welcome! Today we are going to learn how
marketers misuse terms to sell you shit. For folks my age, it was words like
“space age” and “turbo”. The very first episode of the original _Battlestar
Galactica_ had the character Starbuck using the “turbos” in his spacecraft.
Those unaware might not know that turbines compress air, which outer space is
sorely lacking. But it sounds cool, huh?

Today your generation has to deal with abuse of “pro”. Same shit, different
generation. Difference is, back in my day we shrugged it off as salespeople
doing what salespeople do, went on about our day. Now we can write indignant
blog posts, but frankly I don’t know that it’s worth getting that worked up
about it.

~~~
crgwbr
> The very first episode of the original Battlestar Galactica had the
> character Starbucks using the “turbos” in his spacecraft. Those unaware
> might not know that turbines compress air, which outer space is sorely
> lacking.

It’s pedantic, but rockets do have “turbos” actually. They use turbo-pumps to
feed fuel and lox from the tanks into the combustion chamber.

~~~
mikestew
I will grant you one Pedantry Credit to use, as it sounds familiar and I have
no reason to not believe you. But in return I will point out that I doubt
that’s where Starbuck was going with that. :-)

(And for the second time, auto-correct, the character’s name is STARBUCK,
singular. FFS, Apple, _Moby Dick_ is a default book included in the Books app,
did no one there read it?)

~~~
paranoidrobot
If you're interested, Scott Manley gives a good intro to the way rocket
engines work, and in particular turbo pumps[1] at ~3:30.

[1] [https://youtu.be/4QXZ2RzN_Oo?t=212](https://youtu.be/4QXZ2RzN_Oo?t=212)

------
elil17
People seem to forget that words can have multiple meanings and those meanings
can shift. You can still use the abbreviation "pro" to refer to professionals
- a pro tennis player, for example. At the same time, "pro" has been used as
an adjective meaning "very good" for a long time, and not just for tech
systems, but for people as well (eg, "they're very good, they're a pro").

------
SwiftyBug
I always loved how the Gudang Garam cigarettes brings a "Professional" label
in its box:

[https://www.clovecigarettesonline.com/images/stories/virtuem...](https://www.clovecigarettesonline.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/gg_professional_4ea6d81ab22eb.gif)

~~~
renke1
You have to be a professional smoker to enjoy them for sure.

------
hombre_fatal
I've seen so much controversy the last couple days over the Airpod Pro for
this "reason" that I'm wondering why it took people this long to learn the
basic life skill of not taking marketing at face value. I suppose 2019 is
better late than never for these people.

~~~
AlexandrB
> I've seen so much controversy the last couple days over the Airpod Pro...

I wonder if this is a viral marketing play. Maybe I'm too jaded.

~~~
UI_at_80x24
My first thought too.

I am jaded. Not enough though.

------
jmisavage
What about Porsche with their Turbo trim EV? Turbo, Pro, whatever are just
being used to denote something better like plus and premium used to do.

Besides aren't most professional things labeled Enterprise now anyway?

~~~
tonyedgecombe
We had turbo buttons on PC's years ago, most of them did nothing.

~~~
AdrianB1
They always did something; the Turbo button was switching the CPU frequency on
older PC's that ran software with no speed auto-dectection and adjustment. On
IBM PC XT the turbo button was switching between 4.77 and 9.54MHz, on AT it
was 8-12 or ever 16 MHz. They were needed on faster computers because some
games were otherwise unplayable at the higher frequency. You may have had a
turbo button on a PC case that was not connected to anything, that is a
different story. If you put a 486 in a case from a XT the turbo button "not
working" is your fault only.

~~~
gambiting
So the question is.....why weren't those machines running at the higher
frequency in the first place? Why would you only enable the turbo mode to play
games but no to work in Excel?

~~~
AdrianB1
On AT computers you had to go to low frequency to play games built for XT's.
For example M1 Abrams tank simulator was a slideshow on a XT at 4.77, slow but
almost playable on 9.54, fine on a AT at 12 MHz and unplayable on a 386 at 40
MHz (it was like a movie played on 10x speed). On the 386 with turbo off (16
MHz) was playable.

------
theklr
Did people forget about Prosumer? Pro markets are ridiculously niche and have
the price to match (Mac Pro). Most of the areas people complaining about pro I
don't get. Not everyone wants to have "professional grade" everything at all
times. I use to be a professional photographer, but I couldn't justify 2k+ and
all my dev budgets at the same time so most of these "pro" products hit my
sweet spot. Not over the top where I'm now learning how to use the tool, but
just more than enough to be dangerous if i want to take some quick photos to
see if I kept my "eye." So far most of this angst is from professionals who
don't speak on their own "pro" tools but will in an instant shit on anything
mass marketed with the term. Sigh.

------
close04
The difference between this and the hundreds of other products using the "Pro"
moniker is that this is Apple and it generates controversy (and clicks) better
than most other brands. It's a label to differentiate product lines, like
"Turbo" on an electric car.

It's enough to do a search for "Pro" on the very same website above to see how
many not-so-Pro products they covered over the past 20 years (like phones,
cheap SSDs, or consumer cameras).

I do appreciate the article tag is "Humor" though.

~~~
TremendousJudge
>like "Turbo" on an electric car.

or on a compiler!

------
flexie
Pro has been added to the name of sports equipment for decades although 99
percent of the pro rackets, pro swimwear and pro boots are bought by amateurs.

------
rado
PS4 Pro lmao

~~~
rafadc
There will be more pro esport players with their ps4 pro than professionals
using airpods pro for their respective jobs.

~~~
abakker
Nope, I'll bet that many, many professional consultants and lawyers will now
use these to take conference calls in even more comfort than the originals.
Seriously, if you spend all day on the phone (aka, a professional), they're
awesome.

~~~
rado
Yes, and if quality is better than AirPods 1, they can replace pro wireless
microphone kits from Røde, Sennheiser etc., just like iPhone Pro can replace
many cameras.

------
jasonmp85
Why did someone submit this?

Why is it still here?

A photo site owned by Amazon making dumb jokes based on their misunderstanding
of how language works. Insightful.

------
Tepix
I'm not the only one to remember the Competition Pro joystick.

This was a long time ago (around 1986).

Back then there were no professional e-sport players.

------
jhbadger
Tech products have a long history of misleading names, though. In the 1980s
and 1990s, a very popular compiler was called "Turbo Pascal" and computers
often had buttons to change the clock speed marked "Turbo". Obviously, these
products didn't have literal turbochargers in them.

------
samtrack2019
We do use the `Pro` abbreviation for proffesional quite often in french

------
kwhitefoot
Where and when I grew up pro was an abbreviation for prostitute. No one would
ever have described themselves as a pro with the possible exception of a
golfing professional.

~~~
throwaway413
That’s...unfortunate.

------
backtoyoujim
"pro et contra" precedes.

------
kilo_bravo_3
Airpods aren't professional?

At least people aren't telling me that they are also not made of air or shaped
like pods.

That would warp my sense of reality to such a degree that I wouldn't know what
to do with my life and I would have to write a 7,500 word essay on why
everything should be named literally and post it to medium.com, thus bringing
shame to myself, my ancestors, and my descendants.

