It’s takes real skill to take a concept that has been developed over years of highly technical debate and scholarship and make it understandable with normal language, even if the underlying concepts are actually super simple.
I think a reason for this is that in highly technical or complex fields, it’s counterintuitively easier to speak in full jargon, since that’s how ideas are developed and how people in the field are convinced of their validity. Using language for the “public” can often mean you lose some of the more subtle meanings, though you’re right that at the end of the day the explanations that we end up with are usually easy for most people to understand.
So I think it’s actually pretty natural to start with jargon and then refine the ideas by translating them into normal speak.
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What are ‘most things’?
Example?
People using specific terms that people outside of the field do not know. We need those terms for efficient communication, but when talking to someone outside of that field many still use those and expect everyone to understand them.
I don’t think it’s a deliberate thing to use technical jargon you’re used to. It’s just that you’re used to it so your brain thinks everyone does too.
It’s not a matter of ill intent but just a lack of pedagogy.
It is in your brain and it usually more accurately describes something, but also is sometimes used purposely to encourage the recipient to educate themselves.
I guess most do it because they are used to. But some really do it because they think they are better and do not want to “go down to that level”.
The problem is it’s incredibly hard to switch off the years of information accumulated in your brain and pretend to be a beginner when communicating your thoughts.
You would not talk to a child/toddler/baby/… the way you talk to a colleague. So no, it is very easy to “switch off”, you just have to do it.
I always talked to my child as if she was an adult. So there’s that. She’s fine btw.
Tbf, I don’t often talk to children about work, and I don’t think most adults would want me to talk to them like a child.
Plus, talking to children doesn’t come naturally to everyone. It’s certainly not fair to describe it as “very easy”.
Making a herculean effort to get this post back up to 0. Creating more accounts now.
