Geeks’ use of jargon around non-geeks
In my daily reading of Tom Limoncelli’s blog, I happened by a post with a link to an article, “Geek behaviors present during conversations” by Phillip Guo. The article is quite interesting, and describes quite a few phenomena that can be noticed when conversing with a geek. One of the parts that immediately stuck out in my mind, though, was:
Using technical terms without checking for understanding
When geeks try to teach non-geeks about technical matters, they often
make heavy use of technical terminology because it’s the most concise
and accurate way to convey their thoughts. Unfortunately, many
non-geeks cannot understand such jargon and thus grow confused or
frustrated.Non-geeks might perceive geeks as being snooty and elitist by talking to
them using cryptic ‘geek-speak’, but in fact, I suspect that their
intentions are more innocent: Geeks often don’t remember what it was
like not to have an understanding of technical concepts, especially
related to their area of expertise such as computers or electronic
gadgets. Thus, when communicating with non-geeks, they often throw
around technical terms without first tactfully checking to see whether
listeners know what these terms mean. In the geek’s mind, technical
jargon (e.g., router, dongle) and especially acronyms (e.g., DVI,
TCP/IP, SQL) sound as natural and colloquial as regular English
words. “How could anyone NOT know what these words mean?”
While I’m definitely guilty of throwing jargon into explanations when I’m at least half-conscious that the other party doesn’t understand it, I’d say that it’s usually (for me and many who I know) for a different reason. Or, more accurately, a combination of reasons that I’ll call “the expectation of effort” and “the Google effect”. Firstly, among most geeks (and definitely those of us in the open source world) there’s an expectation that people are interested, are curious, and will research something that they don’t know about when they hear it. The second part is what I call “the Google effect”; most of us geeks do most of our communication (especially about technical things) at a computer, whether via email, IM, forums, or chat. Therefore, there’s usually an expectation that if someone doesn’t understand a term, the answer is as easy as Ctrl+T and typing the term into Google.
I also must take exception to one other item in the article:
Favoring complexity and detail over simplicity in descriptions
When a geek is describing his latest pet project, he often tries to make
his descriptions sound complicated and detailed, in order to convey
the sophistication of his technical prowess.
I’ve described plenty of my projects to plenty of people, and yes, my descriptions are generally very detailed. But it’s not out of any desire to convey sophistication or prowess – my description may be the same whether I’m telling it to someone who can’t operate a computer or someone of much greater skill than my own. It’s simply the burning need to be accurate and complete. Put as simply and generally as possible, if I’m describing a project, I don’t want whoever I’m talking to to ask questions when I’m done describing it. It’s like documentation – if I were writing a man page, whoever reads it shouldn’t be left with major questions to ask when they finish.
