• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    Easier yes, but also more confusing, causing terms to lose specificity and accuracy.

    I am the kind of person that complains every time I see people incorrectly using any term adopted from another language, culture, academic field, whatever.

    So… yes, I can and do complain about things lile that.

    To pick a random example: Almost no one uses the term ‘black swan event’ properly.

    Its from Nassim Taleb, meant to describe… a kind of risk of an event that would have been impossible to predict, due to said risk being completely unprecedented, outside of the possibility of conceiving.

    But, most people just use ‘black swan event’ to mean… a thing that is fairly uncommon, but certainly has been studied, has a precedent, has known situations in which it arises.

    Thats not a black swan event. Thats a predictable but uncommon event, not a wholly unprecedented and totally unpredictable event.