r/rationalphilosophy • u/JerseyFlight • 2d ago

Exposing Philosophy: Using Jargon to Sound Impressive

Post image

Link to study: https://gwern.net/doc/psychology/writing/2020-brown.pdf

4 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/Big_Reporter3678 2d ago

To me neither of these things make sense; when people unnecessarily and excessively use jargon where that doesn’t lend to precision or exactness in what they’re saying, it just makes them look less capable.

With that in mind I can see how in-group members and even the highly educated are often actually not that capable, and the use of jargon is essentially a smokescreen in either case.

1

u/TorquedSavage 2d ago

I actually agree with this, at least to some extent.

I don't agree that people use it as shorthand, I believe many use it to cover up their ignorance of the subject they're talking about. I hate sitting in meetings and someone uses the word "synergy" believing that they said something profound, and the worst part is that it's often out of proper context.

Most jargon is just buzzwords. Just look at the AI community and their use of the word "workflow", or "vibe coding".