Going forward, when setting up new language, it might be beneficial to consider choosing terminology that doesn’t strongly evoke the feeling that its frequent use in discussion could threaten the integrity of its definition in the first place. Now, the deed is already done here, but I would suggest for the future making sure that terms needing guarded definitions are more descriptive. At a first pass, the procedure might look like:
Using an obviously and explicitly temporary word during discussions (e.g. foo, thinggummi), settle on a firm and final definition for the concept being discussed
Distill a word or phrase from the definition itself that is unlikely to be diluted by by being introduced into common parlance. The goal here is to point specifically at the definition in a way that is difficult to undo if/when the word enters circulation. Maybe even choose a word that seems likely to go largely unused outside a very narrow range of discussions, if that seems appropriate.
Still write a statement of intention for the term and guard its definition closely in future conversations. Include a copy-paste footnote that anybody can use to give a summary definition with a pointer to the full statement and its associated discussion.
Since “pivotal act” is defined as “actions that will make a large positive difference a billion years later”, you might end up with something like “gigayear benefit” (off the top of my head). With frequent use, this might even collapse into a form that’s basically gibberish to those without a passing understanding of the topic (e.g. “gigyben”). You end up with something that’s less punchy than “pivotal act”, but that’s kind of the point. Producing a word or phrase that is unlikely to be used in other contexts helps protect it from definitional drift.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that the phrase “pivotal act” be changed at this point (“gigyben” is terrible anyway—sounds like a children’s superhero). Rather, I’m agreeing that the words we choose to use are important and can be worth protecting. (Literally get off of the lost causes, though. Language does change over time and there’s little you can do to meaningfully resist that once it’s started.) I’m suggesting a layer of security for some jargon in particularly sensitive topics. If “pivotal act” didn’t seem like a particularly corruptible phrase (it sounds like something a Literature professor or journalist might make up, and is just screaming out be used hyperbolically), we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion in the first place.
I think I basically agree with this. I definitely generally think of it as the jargonist’s job to come up with jargon that has a decent shot at weathering the forces of conversational pressure, and if you want an oddly specific term it’s better to name it something that sounds oddly specific. (This still doesn’t reliably work, people will shoehorn the oddly-specific jargon into things to sound smart, but it makes it less plausibly deniable)
I like “gigayear impact” or something similar.
I do think it’s still helpful to have the concept of guarded terms.
I wish we had somehow adopted the practice of using lots of acronyms; I think they probably work much better at 1) preserving technical meanings and 2) not overloading words that people think they already understand. (You weren’t using “CIA” for anything before you heard about the Central Intelligence Agency; you probably were using “pivotal” and “act” for something before you heard about pivotal acts.) Like, I think it’s relatively unlikely that SEAI will drift in common usage, in part because it seems hard to mistakenly believe that you understand the common meaning of SEAI unless you know what the acronym stands for.
I disagree on acronyms being a good solution here – they initially are a lot of free real-estate, but quickly get cluttered up, and are hard to distinguish. I already see this with organizations with very similar acronyms that I have trouble telling apart.
This is doomed. Jargon appears and evolves, and is always context-specific in ways that conflict with other uses.
The solution is not to pick less-common sound sequences, that just makes it hard to discuss in technical terms. The solution is to use more words when the context calls for it (like when first using the phrase in a post, note that you mean this technical definition, not the more common layman’s interpretation).
I haven’t actually paid attention to this post, so I don’t know if the complaint is that someone used it in the wrong context in a confusing way or if they’re somehow expecting people to always have the right context. The answer should be “use more words”, not “it always means what I want it to mean”.
To restate my argument simply: the more closely a term captures its intended definition, the less work the community will need to do to guard the intended definition of that term. The less interesting a term sounds, the less likely it is to be co-opted for some other purpose. This should be acted on intentionally and documented publicly by those wishing to protect a term. People bringing the term into the conversation should be prepared to point at that documentation.
Going forward, when setting up new language, it might be beneficial to consider choosing terminology that doesn’t strongly evoke the feeling that its frequent use in discussion could threaten the integrity of its definition in the first place. Now, the deed is already done here, but I would suggest for the future making sure that terms needing guarded definitions are more descriptive. At a first pass, the procedure might look like:
Using an obviously and explicitly temporary word during discussions (e.g. foo, thinggummi), settle on a firm and final definition for the concept being discussed
Distill a word or phrase from the definition itself that is unlikely to be diluted by by being introduced into common parlance. The goal here is to point specifically at the definition in a way that is difficult to undo if/when the word enters circulation. Maybe even choose a word that seems likely to go largely unused outside a very narrow range of discussions, if that seems appropriate.
Still write a statement of intention for the term and guard its definition closely in future conversations. Include a copy-paste footnote that anybody can use to give a summary definition with a pointer to the full statement and its associated discussion.
Since “pivotal act” is defined as “actions that will make a large positive difference a billion years later”, you might end up with something like “gigayear benefit” (off the top of my head). With frequent use, this might even collapse into a form that’s basically gibberish to those without a passing understanding of the topic (e.g. “gigyben”). You end up with something that’s less punchy than “pivotal act”, but that’s kind of the point. Producing a word or phrase that is unlikely to be used in other contexts helps protect it from definitional drift.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that the phrase “pivotal act” be changed at this point (“gigyben” is terrible anyway—sounds like a children’s superhero). Rather, I’m agreeing that the words we choose to use are important and can be worth protecting. (Literally get off of the lost causes, though. Language does change over time and there’s little you can do to meaningfully resist that once it’s started.) I’m suggesting a layer of security for some jargon in particularly sensitive topics. If “pivotal act” didn’t seem like a particularly corruptible phrase (it sounds like something a Literature professor or journalist might make up, and is just screaming out be used hyperbolically), we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion in the first place.
I think I basically agree with this. I definitely generally think of it as the jargonist’s job to come up with jargon that has a decent shot at weathering the forces of conversational pressure, and if you want an oddly specific term it’s better to name it something that sounds oddly specific. (This still doesn’t reliably work, people will shoehorn the oddly-specific jargon into things to sound smart, but it makes it less plausibly deniable)
I like “gigayear impact” or something similar.
I do think it’s still helpful to have the concept of guarded terms.
I wish we had somehow adopted the practice of using lots of acronyms; I think they probably work much better at 1) preserving technical meanings and 2) not overloading words that people think they already understand. (You weren’t using “CIA” for anything before you heard about the Central Intelligence Agency; you probably were using “pivotal” and “act” for something before you heard about pivotal acts.) Like, I think it’s relatively unlikely that SEAI will drift in common usage, in part because it seems hard to mistakenly believe that you understand the common meaning of SEAI unless you know what the acronym stands for.
Man I wish I had a strong disagree react.
I disagree on acronyms being a good solution here – they initially are a lot of free real-estate, but quickly get cluttered up, and are hard to distinguish. I already see this with organizations with very similar acronyms that I have trouble telling apart.
This is doomed. Jargon appears and evolves, and is always context-specific in ways that conflict with other uses.
The solution is not to pick less-common sound sequences, that just makes it hard to discuss in technical terms. The solution is to use more words when the context calls for it (like when first using the phrase in a post, note that you mean this technical definition, not the more common layman’s interpretation).
I haven’t actually paid attention to this post, so I don’t know if the complaint is that someone used it in the wrong context in a confusing way or if they’re somehow expecting people to always have the right context. The answer should be “use more words”, not “it always means what I want it to mean”.
To restate my argument simply: the more closely a term captures its intended definition, the less work the community will need to do to guard the intended definition of that term. The less interesting a term sounds, the less likely it is to be co-opted for some other purpose. This should be acted on intentionally and documented publicly by those wishing to protect a term. People bringing the term into the conversation should be prepared to point at that documentation.