When Jargon Becomes Gibberish
summary
Explains why technical shorthand degenerates into misunderstanding: uncontrolled acronyms (ACLs and SCSI), reused metaphors (desktop, bootstrap), code names and buzzwords (containers, Manhattan Project), and cultural or linguistic translation problems that add an extra decoding step. Shows concrete misfires like stack canary vs connery confusion, marketing-induced meaning drift (hacker → criminal), and deprecated phrasing (master/slave vs neutral terms). Recommends concrete fixes: know the audience, slow down, and stop using slides of nothing but acronyms.
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chapters (34)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:32Who am I
- 1:28What is jargon
- 2:27Why do we create Jargon
- 3:23Too hard to refer to
- 5:42How do we create
- 6:21abbreviate
- 7:09acronyms
- 7:55Scuzzy
- 8:58PLA
- 9:20Code Names
- 11:15Repurposed Words
- 12:01Bootstraps
- 12:57Desktop Metaphor
- 14:16Inside Jokes
- 16:36Ambiguity
- 19:31Cultural Biases
- 21:15Stack Canary
- 23:29Change in Activity
- 25:03Group Changes
- 27:09Jargon Clash
- 27:58Mixing Jargon
- 29:38Buzz Words
- 31:51We talk funny
- 32:55Containers
- 33:56Being Offended
- 35:09Familiarity
- 36:09Change
- 38:14Useful Tool
- 38:32Clever
- 39:16Know your audience
- 40:07Communication stops
- 40:35Speeding up understanding
- 41:03Bonus points
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