Name Dropping
We are often put
off by the jargon others use (if we don’t understand it). But when we use the
jargon of the field we understand, we don’t even realize it!
Now don’t get me
wrong. I fully understand the advantage of jargon: it saves us the time of
having to explain every concept that we refer to in our discussions. But I
didn’t realize that the very same jargon can, at times, prevent us from knowing
the extent of our ignorance about things!
That fact hit me
while reading this passage from Richard Feynman’s The Pleasure of Finding Things Out where he talked about his dad’s
way of teaching things:
“Looking at a bird he says, “Do you know
what that bird is? It’s a brown throated thrush; but in Portuguese it’s a . . .
in Italian a . . . ,” he says “in Chinese it’s a . . . , in Japanese a . . . ,”
etcetera. Now,” he says, “you know in all the languages you want to know what
the name of that bird is and when you’ve finished with all that,” he says, “you’ll know
absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. You only know about humans
in different places and what they call the bird. Now,” he says, “let’s look
at the bird.”
Feynman’s learnt
an important point from this:
“The difference between knowing the name
of something and knowing something.”
(The fact that
Feynman did absorb this lesson is obvious anytime you hear one of his videos or
read any of his lectures).
I found this
fact to be a great eye-opener. Because Feynman’s dad is not talking about people who use terms to impress others or to mask
their ignorance. He is talking about people who use terms without malice and
end up thinking they know more than they really know!
It makes me
wonder how many terms do I use while speaking or thinking without realizing
that they are lulling me into a false sense of knowing something?
Sure, you got is as effectively as Feynman did it - and presented it beautifully.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add this. Before I do that, allow me to do admit there are many who know what is the jargon they themselves use and what is the substance behind. When such people use jargon, actually we can feel the difference. There are some others who would honestly admit that is the word used and they think it seems OK even if they don't know exactly what it is all about.
Having said that, unfortunately we live in a world where not only jargon prevails because it gives its ignorant users a false comfort of knowing, but even goes to the extent of making the user feel superior to the one who listens with doubt showing in the eyes. Not many "dare" to ask, "What does your xxxx {i.e jargon} mean?" On some occasions when I asked, I would get a, "Everyone knows that" or worse still, "I didn't expect this from you. Even a yyyy {i.e a lowly person as per their feudal viewpoint} knows it" to ensure I shut up. On a few occasions the jargon person would mumble something while looking for an end to question routine!
I suppose we need to take it easy. Perhaps I too may have my limitations in this respect of which I may not even be aware! :-) I am no Feynman anyway. Why expect everyone to be proper?
Interesting that a modern spiritual teacher called Eckhart Tolle makes the same point. He says that if we move away from labeling things and just take them in with all our senses, we connect to a deeper dimension of that reality.
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