

I don't understand what anyone is saying anymore - asanwal
http://blogs.hbr.org/pallotta/2011/12/i-dont-understand-what-anyone.html#.TwCrZ2uMbSU.facebook

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tzs
This reminds me of an anecdote from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!".
Feynman had been invited to a cross discipline conference on the ethics of
equality. While there, he was given a paper to read by a sociologist. Here's
Feynman's description of reading that paper (the list he refers to was a list
of books they had sent around before the conference):

\-----------------------------------

There was a sociologist who had written a paper for us all to read—something
he had written ahead of time. I started to read the damned thing and my eyes
were coming out—I couldn't make head nor tail of it. I figured it was because
I hadn’t read any of the books on that list. I had this uneasy feeling of,
"I'm not adequate," until finally I said to myself, "I'm going to stop, and
read one sentence slowly so I can figure out what the hell it means."

So I stopped at random and read the next sentence very carefully. I can't
remember it precisely, but it was very close to this: "The individual member
of the social community often receives his information via visual, symbolic
channels." I went back and forth over it and translated. You know what it
means? "People read."

Then I went over the next sentence. And I realized that I could translate that
one, also. Then it became a kind of empty business. "Sometimes people read.
Sometimes people listen to the radio." And so on. But written in such a fancy
way that I couldn't understand it at first. And when I finally deciphered it,
there was nothing to it.

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ryanmarsh
The English parlance of American business is utter gobbledygook. The
vocabulary within non-profits is even worse.

The more I read from Dan Palotta the more endeared I become to him. His book,
"Uncharitable" is about the ridiculous mores, both intrinsic and extrinsic,
that impair the effectiveness of charities. I was blessed to find him a
kindred spirit when I began my own non-profit in 2010. By that time I had
developed a tolerance for non-sensical jargon and group-think in business. The
non-profit sector, however, is immersed in such a say-nothing, mean-nothing,
decide-nothing, do-nothing culture that it's amazing that anything gets
accomplished.

In fact, were there not a steady influx of starry eyed bleeding hearted young
people, it would be a great environment for leaders to commit heinous crimes
and find no internal condemnation. Kind of like Jerry Sandusky and The Second
Mile.

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garethsprice
When I was younger I thought long words and jargon were a sign of
intelligence.

George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English language", changed overnight
how I think when I'm writing:
<http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm>

Learning to filter jargon and communicate it in plain English is probably the
most valuable skill I've acquired in my career.

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auxbuss
Bringing it closer to home, and admirably demonstrating my pedantry, every
other thread on HN contains, to me, nonsensical extensions to words, such as:
"build out" for build, "abstract away" for abstract, and so on, there are
hundreds of these "why use one good word when two will mess it up real good".

