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 …
Bloomberg Opinion writer. Elected "top neoliberal shill" of 2018. Occasionally posts anime gifs.
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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,
One person's jargon is another person's precision. The key to good writing is to be as clear as possible, but no clearer. Making complex points sound simple is just as misleading (maybe more misleading) than the opposite.
That's why jargon works so well as obscurantism. Even if there's a way to express the exact same point in simple language without losing any meaning, an insider can credibly claim that there is no such way, and shake his head at any attempted paraphrase.
Right. The difficulty lies in knowing where to draw the line, i.e., when a concept actually cannott be made any simpler. We don't want all writing to be like the xkcd Up Goer Five, written with only the 100 most common words). https://xkcd.com/1133/
Right. If all jargon were transparent, it wouldn't work very well as a barrier-to-entry, right? That's why you need insiders to critique the jargon; outsiders will only ever have suspicions.
Right! Too much jargon is a barrier-to-entry. But that's not the only function of jargon. Sometimes its necessary to use specialized language to capture specialized ideas.
As evidenced by the first word of our tweets, we agree here. We're just placing different emphasis on the point where we agree. The tricky question is whether certain fields cross the line between specialization-for-clarity and obscurantism-for-exclusivity more often than others.
Yeah. And also, I think a lot of people tend to assume that academic bullshit comes with large social costs. But I wonder if confining bullshit to academia actually protects the real world from bad ideas! ;-)
Me looking at business-jargon and corporate-speak:pic.twitter.com/0rO4WWB391
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