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Noahpinion's profile
Noah Smith
Noah Smith
Noah Smith
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@Noahpinion

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Noah SmithVerified account

@Noahpinion

Bloomberg Opinion writer. Elected "top neoliberal shill" of 2018. Occasionally posts anime gifs.

San Francisco, CA
bloomberg.com/view/contribut…
Joined April 2011

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    1. Noah Smith‏Verified account @Noahpinion Oct 13

      Noah Smith Retweeted Jeffrey Sachs

      This thread demonstrates that a lot of academic writing that *looks* like utter nonsense is merely scholars dressing up a useful but mundane point with a ton of unnecessary jargon.https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1051097280030396417 …

      Noah Smith added,

      Jeffrey Sachs @JeffreyASachs
      Imagine for a moment the most obscurantist, jargon-filled, po-mo article the politically correct academy might produce. Pure SJW nonsense. Got it? Chances are you're imagining something like the infamous "Feminist Glaciology" article from a few years back. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309132515623368 … pic.twitter.com/qtSFBYY80S
      Show this thread
      21 replies 69 retweets 286 likes
      Show this thread
      Noah Smith‏Verified account @Noahpinion Oct 13

      My theory is that the jargon creates an artificial barrier to entry. http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/academic-bs-as-artificial-barriers-to.html … If one must spend years marinating one's brain in jargon to be perceived as an expert on a topic, it protects the status and earning power of people who study relatively easy topics.

      11:06 AM - 13 Oct 2018
      • 42 Retweets
      • 218 Likes
      • Gonzalo Michael Bouchard Isaac Sunny Davis René Böheim Manuel Moe Garcia Rene Ropac Sinch Health Ben, Resident Gundam Historian Ph.D.
      20 replies 42 retweets 218 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Noah Smith‏Verified account @Noahpinion Oct 13

          In econ, a similar thing is accomplished by what recent Nobel prize winner Paul Romer calls "mathiness": https://paulromer.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Mathiness.pdf … But mathiness and jargon are not quite the same...

          4 replies 7 retweets 48 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Noah Smith‏Verified account @Noahpinion Oct 13

          Jargon usually doesn't force you to change the substance of your central point. Mathiness often does. By forcing you to write your model in a way that's mathematically tractable (easy to work with), mathiness often impoverishes your understanding of how the world really works.

          10 replies 11 retweets 64 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Noah Smith‏Verified account @Noahpinion Oct 13

          @Undercoverhist has written about this problem:https://beatricecherrier.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/what-price-did-economists-pay-for-tractability/ …

          1 reply 8 retweets 27 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Noah Smith‏Verified account @Noahpinion Oct 13

          Jargon sounds sillier than mathiness. It looks worse to the public, because most of the public thinks they should be able to understand English but doesn't assume they can understand math. But mathiness, ultimately, is probably more pernicious. (end)

          18 replies 18 retweets 76 likes
          Show this thread
        6. End of conversation
        1. New conversation
        2. Cosmopolitan Space Force‏ @CorpusCynicum Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          I don't share many of the opinions of the firebrands who want to completely destroy these studies, but this has always bothered me: it's an exclusionary element in fields where such elements undercut their whole legitimacy and it smacks so much of classism

          1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
        3. flabbergasted‏ @observeaddict Oct 13
          Replying to @CorpusCynicum @Noahpinion

          And some of their conclusions smack of a savior complex. Speaking on behalf of groups w/ supposedly a marginalized voice...yet many in these groups haven’t had the vocab training to contribute to the exclusive field of study.

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        4. flabbergasted‏ @observeaddict Oct 13
          Replying to @observeaddict @CorpusCynicum @Noahpinion

          It goes to show those without the opportunity or means to attempt higher education are likely the most marginalized no mater the phenotype on average. No field of study changes this reality.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        5. End of conversation
        1. Arthur Dent‏ @ArthurCDent Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          I’ve read this article carefully. It’s an illustrative example of another important role of jargon - to dress up basic observations to make them seem more profound than they actually are.

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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        1. New conversation
        2. Teddy KGB‏ @mikefrom1978 Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          You might get excused from work with a subdermal hematoma on your patella. A bruised knee however?

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
        3. 1 more reply
        1. Glenn Jones‏ @Feintglow Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          Using long sentences containing numerous grammatical parts also helped lawyers! And let's not forget the sprinkling of Latin and French to further confuse laymen. Mia culpa and honi soit qui mal y pense.

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Lex Tapay‏ @LexTapay Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          I back this theory 100%. Corporate culture is full of this and it’s a Machiavellian tactic by creating an over inflated value for control. Any outsider that attempts to enter the domain would have submit to the barrier controller.

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Gary Crooks‏ @GaryCrooks Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          Love this tweet. So many groups would visit our editorial board and speak their language, instead of making an effort to be understood our readers. What’s the point, other than signaling to colleagues that they’re in the know?

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        2. Hugo Redondo‏ @haredondo Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          On the other hand, it does make communication with other knowledgeable people in your field much more efficient. The problem seems to be more in its misuse than with jargon itself. It developed naturally, after all.

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        3. 1 more reply
        1. Dan Henri‏ @biskwikman Oct 14
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          I did my urban planning masters a few years ago and this brought back bad memories. Although I feel like I have to say that there is a lot of very, very good research in urban planning.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. DamienC‏ @DamienCharlotin Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          But wasn't that one of the things the hoax sought to prove ? That it is jargon to disguise political advocacy, and thus jargon that can easily be mastered in a limited time as long as you stick to the broader advoc. - and so the barrier is about politics, not scholarship value.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Rudy Gabagooliani‏ @GurdCarm Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          it’s especially annoying when the jargon has lots of misnomers in it. I sometimes think it’s because there are lots of non-native English speakers in academia

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2.  ⚡️Christoph Kletzer ⚡️‏ @c_kletzer Oct 13
          Replying to @Noahpinion

          Well, unfortunately not. The “grievance study” hoax is such a hard hitter because is was done so easily by people in no sense experts or marinated in the respective field. There was no proof of work requirement for entry. Just read a couple of papers and you can do it...

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3.  ⚡️Christoph Kletzer ⚡️‏ @c_kletzer Oct 13
          Replying to @c_kletzer @Noahpinion

          Mathiness not only clears up ones thinking and acts as a bullshit detector, as you say, but also requires some proof of work to pull off. It is hard to give this PoW and easy to detect/verify. Classic P v NP

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        4.  ⚡️Christoph Kletzer ⚡️‏ @c_kletzer Oct 13
          Replying to @c_kletzer @Noahpinion

          The logical but awkward result is that people feel that the only route open to save their discipline from hoaxes like this is to bite the bullet and declare the hoaxers unwitting geniuses of the field who actually made valuable contributions..

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        5. End of conversation

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