The meme is about technical science jobs. There are absolutely technical science jobs where you cannot communicate key ideas and concepts without a) the person you’re describing it to needing more than “a bit of undergrad math/science” and b) if you try to explain it without using specialist terminology, you’ll spend an unnecessary hour for every quarter hour of content recalling the specialist definition of things because, for some reason, you refuse to use the precise word that the scientific community have agreed means exactly that.
I’ve progressed quite far in the technical science part of my job. I’m at the top end of the graph and encouraging my junior staff to simplify their language and message. Some things absolutely need technical terms, but they don’t need to use overly complicated words to say “this has moved up” or “this thing is bad”. More often meaning gets lost in using euphemisms instead of being clear about the message.
I’ve moved up the management role as well and really can’t bring myself to move from the bottom end of the meme graph. Management really has its own language so they can say lots of words in meetings with very little meaning. We’re in the business of doing shit…are we going to do shit or not?
If you’re communicating with another scientist about the actual work you’re doing then sure there are times when you need to be specific.
If you’re publishing official documentation on something or writing contracts, then yes, you also need to be extremely speciific.
But if you’re just providing a description of your work to a non-specialist then no, there’s always a way of simplifying it for the appropriate context. Same thing goes for most of specialist to specialist communication. There are specific sentences and times you use the precision to distinguish between two different things, but if you insist on always speaking in maximum precision and accuracy then it is simply poor communication skills where you are over providing unnecessary detail that detracts from the actual point you’re trying to convey.
The meme is about technical science jobs. There are absolutely technical science jobs where you cannot communicate key ideas and concepts without a) the person you’re describing it to needing more than “a bit of undergrad math/science” and b) if you try to explain it without using specialist terminology, you’ll spend an unnecessary hour for every quarter hour of content recalling the specialist definition of things because, for some reason, you refuse to use the precise word that the scientific community have agreed means exactly that.
I’ve progressed quite far in the technical science part of my job. I’m at the top end of the graph and encouraging my junior staff to simplify their language and message. Some things absolutely need technical terms, but they don’t need to use overly complicated words to say “this has moved up” or “this thing is bad”. More often meaning gets lost in using euphemisms instead of being clear about the message.
I’ve moved up the management role as well and really can’t bring myself to move from the bottom end of the meme graph. Management really has its own language so they can say lots of words in meetings with very little meaning. We’re in the business of doing shit…are we going to do shit or not?
Well yeah, but that’s business bullshit speak, nothing to do with science!
Their literal entire first paragraph is about scientists doing it.
Using jargon for “this has moved up” or “this thing is bad” is not specific to science in any way.
Thanks, I gaslit myself into thinking I misunderstood what “technical science job” meant.
If you’re communicating with another scientist about the actual work you’re doing then sure there are times when you need to be specific.
If you’re publishing official documentation on something or writing contracts, then yes, you also need to be extremely speciific.
But if you’re just providing a description of your work to a non-specialist then no, there’s always a way of simplifying it for the appropriate context. Same thing goes for most of specialist to specialist communication. There are specific sentences and times you use the precision to distinguish between two different things, but if you insist on always speaking in maximum precision and accuracy then it is simply poor communication skills where you are over providing unnecessary detail that detracts from the actual point you’re trying to convey.