Sometimes I catch myself using jargon even knowing it’s a bad communication strategy, because I just like feeling clever, or signaling that I’m an insider, or obscuring my ideas so people can’t challenge them. OP says these are “naughty reasons to use jargon” (slide 9), but I think that in some cases they fulfill some real social need for people, and if these motivations are still there, we need better ways to satisfy them.
Some ideas:
Instead of associating jargon with cleverness, mentally reframe things. Someone who uses jargon isn’t necessarily clever, especially if they’re misusing it. Feynman said “If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it”, so pat yourself on the back for translating something into straightforward language when appropriate.
Instead of using jargon to feel connected to the in-group, build a group identity that doesn’t rely on jargon. I’m not really sure how to do this.
Instead of using jargon to prevent people from understanding your ideas to challenge them, keep your identity small so you don’t feel personally attacked when being challenged. When you have low confidence in a belief, qualify them with an “I think” or “I have a lot of confusing intuitions here, but...”
Perhaps also doing exposure therapy to practice losing debates without feeling like you’ve been slapped down
This is actually one of the reasons I like the “epistemic status” header; it helps me qualify my statements much more efficiently. From now one I’ll be dropping the “epistemic status” terminology but keeping the header.
I’m sure there are more and better ideas in this direction.
Sometimes I catch myself using jargon even knowing it’s a bad communication strategy, because I just like feeling clever, or signaling that I’m an insider, or obscuring my ideas so people can’t challenge them. OP says these are “naughty reasons to use jargon” (slide 9), but I think that in some cases they fulfill some real social need for people, and if these motivations are still there, we need better ways to satisfy them.
Some ideas:
Instead of associating jargon with cleverness, mentally reframe things. Someone who uses jargon isn’t necessarily clever, especially if they’re misusing it. Feynman said “If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it”, so pat yourself on the back for translating something into straightforward language when appropriate.
Instead of using jargon to feel connected to the in-group, build a group identity that doesn’t rely on jargon. I’m not really sure how to do this.
Instead of using jargon to prevent people from understanding your ideas to challenge them, keep your identity small so you don’t feel personally attacked when being challenged. When you have low confidence in a belief, qualify them with an “I think” or “I have a lot of confusing intuitions here, but...”
Perhaps also doing exposure therapy to practice losing debates without feeling like you’ve been slapped down
This is actually one of the reasons I like the “epistemic status” header; it helps me qualify my statements much more efficiently. From now one I’ll be dropping the “epistemic status” terminology but keeping the header.
I’m sure there are more and better ideas in this direction.