For example, people say “I have a poor mental model of...” when they could have just said they don’t understand it very well.
That… isn’t jargon? There are probably plenty of actual examples you could have used here, but that isn’t one.
Edit: OK, you did give an actual example below that (“blue-green politics”). Nonetheless, “mental model” is not jargon. It wasn’t coined here, it doesn’t have some specialized meaning here that differs from its use outside, it’s entirely compositional and thus transparent—nobody has to explain to you what it means—and at least in my own experience it just isn’t a rare phrase in the first place.
it doesn’t have some specialized meaning here that differs from its use outside
It doesn’t have a use outside.
I measn, yeah, literally, the words do mean the same thing and you could find someone outside lesswrong who says it, but it’s an unnecessarily complicated way to say things that generally is not used. It takes more mental effort to understand, it’s outside most people’s expectations for everyday speech, and it may as well be jargon, even if technically it isn’t. Go ahead, go down the street and the next time you ask someone for directions and they tell you something you can’t understand, reply “I have a poor mental model of how to get to my destination”. They will probably look at you like you’re insane.
“Outside” doesn’t have to include a random guy on the street. Cognitive science as a field is “outside”, and uses “mental model”.
Also, “I have a poor mental model of how to get to my destination” is, descriptively speaking, wrong usage of ‘poor mental model’; it’s inconsistent with the connotations of the phrase, which connotes an attempted understanding which is wrong. I don’t “have a poor mental model” of the study of anthropology; I just don’t know anything about it or have any motivation to learn. I do “have a poor mental model” of religious believers; my best attempts to place myself in the frame of reference of a believer do not explain their true behavior, so I know that my model is poor.
it’s inconsistent with the connotations of the phrase, which connotes an attempted understanding which is wrong
I suggested saying it in response to being given directions you don’t understand. If so, then you did indeed attempt to understand and couldn’t figure it out.
“Outside” doesn’t have to include a random guy on the street.
But there’s a gradation. Some phrases are used only by LWers. Some phrases are used by a slightly wider range of people, some by a slightly wider than that. Whether a phrase is jargon-like isn’t a yes/no thing; using a phrase which is used by cognitive scientists but which would not be understood by the man on the street, when there is another way of saying the same thing that would be understood by the man on the street, is most of the way towards being jargon, even if technically it’s not because cognitive scientists count as an outside group.
Furthermore, just because cognitive scientists know the phrase doesn’t mean they use it in conversation about subjects that are not cognitive science. I suspect that even cognitive scientists would, when asking each other for directions, not reply to incomprehensible directions by saying they have a poor mental model, unless they are making a joke or unless they are a character from the Big Bang Theory (and the Big Bang Theory is funny because most people don’t talk like that, and the few who do are considered socially inept.)
That… isn’t jargon? There are probably plenty of actual examples you could have used here, but that isn’t one.
Edit: OK, you did give an actual example below that (“blue-green politics”). Nonetheless, “mental model” is not jargon. It wasn’t coined here, it doesn’t have some specialized meaning here that differs from its use outside, it’s entirely compositional and thus transparent—nobody has to explain to you what it means—and at least in my own experience it just isn’t a rare phrase in the first place.
It doesn’t have a use outside.
I measn, yeah, literally, the words do mean the same thing and you could find someone outside lesswrong who says it, but it’s an unnecessarily complicated way to say things that generally is not used. It takes more mental effort to understand, it’s outside most people’s expectations for everyday speech, and it may as well be jargon, even if technically it isn’t. Go ahead, go down the street and the next time you ask someone for directions and they tell you something you can’t understand, reply “I have a poor mental model of how to get to my destination”. They will probably look at you like you’re insane.
“Outside” doesn’t have to include a random guy on the street. Cognitive science as a field is “outside”, and uses “mental model”.
Also, “I have a poor mental model of how to get to my destination” is, descriptively speaking, wrong usage of ‘poor mental model’; it’s inconsistent with the connotations of the phrase, which connotes an attempted understanding which is wrong. I don’t “have a poor mental model” of the study of anthropology; I just don’t know anything about it or have any motivation to learn. I do “have a poor mental model” of religious believers; my best attempts to place myself in the frame of reference of a believer do not explain their true behavior, so I know that my model is poor.
I suggested saying it in response to being given directions you don’t understand. If so, then you did indeed attempt to understand and couldn’t figure it out.
But there’s a gradation. Some phrases are used only by LWers. Some phrases are used by a slightly wider range of people, some by a slightly wider than that. Whether a phrase is jargon-like isn’t a yes/no thing; using a phrase which is used by cognitive scientists but which would not be understood by the man on the street, when there is another way of saying the same thing that would be understood by the man on the street, is most of the way towards being jargon, even if technically it’s not because cognitive scientists count as an outside group.
Furthermore, just because cognitive scientists know the phrase doesn’t mean they use it in conversation about subjects that are not cognitive science. I suspect that even cognitive scientists would, when asking each other for directions, not reply to incomprehensible directions by saying they have a poor mental model, unless they are making a joke or unless they are a character from the Big Bang Theory (and the Big Bang Theory is funny because most people don’t talk like that, and the few who do are considered socially inept.)