Glossary:
Selling snake oil = deceiving folks
Pedantic is a fun word. Basically it means: using fancy words to impress people. So, using the word pedantic sort-of means you are being pedantic. Ha. Fun.
IT work is often some braniac stuff and IT folks tend to use a lot of complicated talk, but they aren’t alone. There are a lot of scientific, financial, technology, medical, legal fields (you get the point) who seem to talk over-your-head sometimes. Work-talk is often laden with industry jargon, but only because it is usually easier to say “you need more SSDs in your SAN” than it is to explain why a database is too slow, but $5 k of parts will make folks happy again. Don’t get me started on the medical field and their use of Latin to describe parts, sub-parts and sub-sub-parts of people. It seems excessive, but once you learn the terms, it makes sense why any of it is necessary.
Sometimes all of that jargon (industry language) will turn smiles upside down. If you’ve ever been sold some “snake oil” (ie. some pricey BS that didn’t fix anything), then maybe it will make you more wary, and perhaps even suspicious of folks who throw around complicated/confusing “sciencey” words that go-over-your-head, and seem impressive. I am a big fan of the “buyer beware” mindset, no-matter who I’m talking to.
At one point in my career, I was brought into a troubled project to solve things and complete the project. I thought I had found the root causes, so I had a meeting with the CEO to explain the problem and the solution. I was floored when she suggested that I was trying to sell her some snake-oil, and I needed to stow all of my fancy terms. All of my “slick talk” wasn’t going to fix the real problem here.
Ha! In a way, she actually did reveal the true root-cause. (ehem). Right? I was way-off, but so was she.
My uncle Jim used to say (jokingly) “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS”. Thinking back, um, I don’t think he was actually suggesting I try it myself. He was (sort-of) warning me to be discerning. I would’ve preferred some advice about how to discern those two. Therein lies the problem, I guess. Words are easy, but understanding, that is the real challenge. At least I could be more wary and cautious.
Bottom line…just because someone is using a bunch of fancy-talk doesn’t necessarily mean they are selling you some snake oil. Ask for details, bring-along a friend who speaks the same / similar jargon, ask for examples. Maybe even ask for a list of terms to learn or keywords. Read-up-on those terms / concepts.
Sometimes folks will get pedantic to impress you, maybe to sell you something, even if it is only a concept. Sometimes they are just trying to communicate effectively, and failing at it. Learning industry jargon can be a powerful thing. It is only as expensive as your time, as much as it takes for you to learn it.
Aah, the pain of being an elitist 