Andrew Fildes wrote:
> I rather thought that dense jargon was a requirement - no-one is ever
> brave enough to admit that they haven't a clue what you're on about.
>
Well, my experience is very deep in one area of business, but not very
broad. I found that those above me in the hierarchy didn't like hearing
things they didn't understand because of limited vocabularies. They
don't say anything directly, but if some important people start thinking
one is a show off, it isn't good. Erudition is OK, as long as you don't
use the word, nor let on how you manage to get the work done.
Of course the discussion of the business is thick with jargon, but it is
obscure because it is shorthand for details of a complex business and
internal company names for things. But it tends to be acronym heavy,
rather than polysyllabic. No denser really than talk in an auto shop or
any other place of business with the need to communicate efficiently
about specialized things.
There were, of course, exceptions, bright, well educated people with
excellent vocabularies, but when talking business with them, it was all
too often in meetings. And a couple of them were under the protection of
whoever was THE MAN at one time or another. I miss W. Creighton Peet.
And the later fellow with the Oxford education and slightly effete
manner did go on to run a couple of other companies and apparently
pulled K-Mart out of the ditch, so you never know. Now he was fun to
talk to.
I remember someone(s) asking me years ago why people working with
computers didn't give things proper English names and talk in ways they
could understand. I suggested that something like " hydraulic apparatus
to compress an iron disk from both sides with replaceable friction pads
in order to retard vehicle speed" took rather longer to say than "disc
brake" I really think most jargon has this real function, without
denying that it is then used to make others feel like outsiders.
Truth is that those folks didn't really know anything about disk brakes,
but were comfortable with the name as something from everyday life. Now
they are the same way about computer vocabulary. Never taken a hard
disk apart just to see or tried coding in assembler. ;-)
Moose
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