Sometimes I catch myself using jargon even knowing itâs a bad communication strategy, because I just like feeling clever, or signaling that Iâm an insider, or obscuring my ideas so people canât challenge them. OP says these are ânaughty reasons to use jargonâ (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 isnât necessarily clever, especially if theyâre misusing it. Feynman said âIf you canât explain something in simple terms, you donât understand itâ, 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 doesnât rely on jargon. Iâm 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 donât feel personally attacked when being challenged. When you have low confidence in a belief, qualify them with an âI thinkâ or âI have a lot of confusing intuitions here, but...â
Perhaps also doing exposure therapy to practice losing debates without feeling like youâve been slapped down
This is actually one of the reasons I like the âepistemic statusâ header; it helps me qualify my statements much more efficiently. From now one Iâll be dropping the âepistemic statusâ terminology but keeping the header.
Iâm sure there are more and better ideas in this direction.
Sometimes I catch myself using jargon even knowing itâs a bad communication strategy, because I just like feeling clever, or signaling that Iâm an insider, or obscuring my ideas so people canât challenge them. OP says these are ânaughty reasons to use jargonâ (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 isnât necessarily clever, especially if theyâre misusing it. Feynman said âIf you canât explain something in simple terms, you donât understand itâ, 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 doesnât rely on jargon. Iâm 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 donât feel personally attacked when being challenged. When you have low confidence in a belief, qualify them with an âI thinkâ or âI have a lot of confusing intuitions here, but...â
Perhaps also doing exposure therapy to practice losing debates without feeling like youâve been slapped down
This is actually one of the reasons I like the âepistemic statusâ header; it helps me qualify my statements much more efficiently. From now one Iâll be dropping the âepistemic statusâ terminology but keeping the header.
Iâm sure there are more and better ideas in this direction.