[FRIAM] Acronyms

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Geez, barry.  And I thought I had made it up.  I was just teasing.  In my line of work (I think of myself ultimately as a writer) the burden of proof is always with the generator of the text.  I assume that nobody has time to mess with acronyms.  If I want to be understood, I have to be clear.  I assume it’s the same with programming.  TRIAR.  

 

Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> 

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Barry MacKichan
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2021 5:12 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Acronyms

 

When I see someting like BICBW,
1. I double click it
2. Get into a Google screen (or Duck Duck Go) (5 keystrokes using Launchbar on a Mac) It is unnecessary to copy it; Launchbar can with the selection.
3. Hit return.
4. Three out of the first five links contain the definition in the first line of the blurb. “BICBW stands for But I Could Be Wrong.”

Elapsed time: about five seconds.
Time to write this email, about 90 seconds.

—Barry

On 25 Jan 2021, at 17:31, thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>  wrote:

I assume when people use acronyms it is to communicate their membership in a club that I am not qualified to join, and they want me to be sure I know that.  So the medium IS the message.  Also, i’s a useful move in an interpersonal power game.  It forces the other person to come groveling back for an explication.  BICBW

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