For what itās worth, I think the term āvarianceā is much more accessible than āsecond momentā.
Variance is a relatively common word. I think in many cases we can be more inclusive without losing precision (another example is āhow much Iām sure of thisā vs āepistemic statusā)
I think in hindsight I might literally have been subconsciously indicating in-groupness (āindicating in-groupnessā means trying to show I fit in š¤® -- feels so much worse in plain English for a reason, jargon is more precise but still often less obvious what is meant, so itās often easier to hide behind it) because my dumb brain likes for people to think Iām smarter than I am.
In my defense, itās so easy to, in the moment, to use the first way of expressing what I mean that comes to mind.
I am sure that I am more likely to think of technical ways of expressing myself because technical language makes a person sound smart and sounding smart gets socially rewarded.
I so strongly reflectively disagree with this impulse but the tribal instinct to fit in really is so strong (in every human being) and really hard to notice in the moment.
I think it takes much more brain power to find the precise and accessible way to say something so, ironically, more technical language often means the opposite of the impression it gives.
This whole thing reminds me of the Richard Feymann take that if you canāt explain something in language everyone can understand, thatās probably because you donāt understand it well enough. I think that we, as a community, would be better off if we managed to get good at rewarding more precise and accessible language and better at punishing unnecessary uses of jargon (like here!!!).[1]
I kind of love the irony of me having clearly done something that I think is a pretty perfect example of exactly what I, when I reflect, believe we need to do a whole lot less of as a communityš¤£
I think itās also good to be nice on the forum and I think Lorenzo nailed this balance perfectly. Their comment was friendly and kind, with a suggested replacement term, but still made me feel like using unnecessary jargon was a bad thing (making using unnecessary jargon feel like something I shouldnāt have done which will likely make my subconscious less likely to instinctively want to use unnecessary jargon in the futureš).
For what itās worth, I think the term āvarianceā is much more accessible than āsecond momentā.
Variance is a relatively common word. I think in many cases we can be more inclusive without losing precision (another example is āhow much Iām sure of thisā vs āepistemic statusā)
lol, yeah, totally agree (strong upvoted).
I think in hindsight I might literally have been subconsciously indicating in-groupness (āindicating in-groupnessā means trying to show I fit in š¤® -- feels so much worse in plain English for a reason, jargon is more precise but still often less obvious what is meant, so itās often easier to hide behind it) because my dumb brain likes for people to think Iām smarter than I am.
In my defense, itās so easy to, in the moment, to use the first way of expressing what I mean that comes to mind.
I am sure that I am more likely to think of technical ways of expressing myself because technical language makes a person sound smart and sounding smart gets socially rewarded.
I so strongly reflectively disagree with this impulse but the tribal instinct to fit in really is so strong (in every human being) and really hard to notice in the moment.
I think it takes much more brain power to find the precise and accessible way to say something so, ironically, more technical language often means the opposite of the impression it gives.
This whole thing reminds me of the Richard Feymann take that if you canāt explain something in language everyone can understand, thatās probably because you donāt understand it well enough. I think that we, as a community, would be better off if we managed to get good at rewarding more precise and accessible language and better at punishing unnecessary uses of jargon (like here!!!).[1]
I kind of love the irony of me having clearly done something that I think is a pretty perfect example of exactly what I, when I reflect, believe we need to do a whole lot less of as a communityš¤£
I think itās also good to be nice on the forum and I think Lorenzo nailed this balance perfectly. Their comment was friendly and kind, with a suggested replacement term, but still made me feel like using unnecessary jargon was a bad thing (making using unnecessary jargon feel like something I shouldnāt have done which will likely make my subconscious less likely to instinctively want to use unnecessary jargon in the futureš).