Tech Terms and why we should use them right

Tech is full of terms specific to the industry only. Buzzwords, jargon, phrases - they're all part of the tech terminology. Terminology is important.

Years ago, I was in a company that used Team Foundation Server (TFS) for version control. I never knew what it was called. Sure, I knew that it was called "TFS" and that I had to check in my code after I was done with it, but I never knew the specific term for this. And it came back to haunt me years later when interviewers asked me if I had ever used a code repository. It never occurred to me, until much later, that a "code repository" was this thing called "TFS" which my team used to collaborate on code, and check on different versions of the code base. I had been using it for a year and didn't even know this much! All I had been doing was working day in and out without any thought to the larger picture. Like it or not, this suggested a lot of things about my professionalism, none of them particularly flattering.

This is not the only example. For years, I worked on CSS without understanding the term "CSS Box Model". I wrote code in a certain way to guard against threats, not knowing what I did was "whitelisting". And I never knew my preferred style of placing curly brackets was known as the K&R style. I just wrote code, and I knew it worked. End of story.

See, this is why terminology is important. Using the correct terms puts you in the same league as the professionals. You share a language. Instant cred.

This is a double-edged sword, though...

The problem with instant cred

You see, plenty of people have figured out the path to "instant cred" too. Pepper their dialogue constantly with tech buzzwords that ultimately don't mean anything in the wrong context. Drop jargon like it's going out of fashion. Join conversations they have no business joining because they haven't done the damn work. These are the pretenders who are trying to sound like they know the industry without having worked a single day in it. They don't have to know anything; just sound knowledgeable.

"So we simply need a Separation Of Concerns in order to follow the Don't Repeat Yourself Rule and Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants to avoid Duplication of Effort."

Feel nauseous yet?

*urk*

When I was younger, I tended to think the world was full of these snake-oil salesmen. In fact, anyone who used terminology too liberally, was immediately classified as some poseur who was trying way too hard to impress people. Maybe get promoted to management or something.

Well, I wasn't completely wrong then, but neither was I completely right. The world is full of these poseurs. But that does not negate the importance of using the right terminology.

Earlier this year, I talked about the difference between parameters and arguments. A lot of techs I know like to say things like "pass in those parameters to the function", which is incorrect. These techs aren't stupid or incompetent; but like me, their training was not totally structured. Whatever we knew, we picked up along our career paths. Bits and pieces of a large scattered picture. The correct terminology wasn't important as long as we understood each other.

To some extent, that works. But it's hard to be effective at what you do if you can't communicate, and you can't count on being in the same team all your life. You will work with other teams who will use the correct terminology, and you will end up confusing the living heck out of each other.

Being pedantic much?

No, I'm not advocating being pedantic at all. In fact, I have nothing but disdain for people who keep correcting me to nitpick on a word I might have incorrectly used when trying to explain a concept, especially when they know damn well what I meant.  Collect your achievement award and get over yourself, why don't you?

But making an effort to use the correct terms is important because it tells people you're not a total idiot. Especially when you're not a total idiot. Don't let a couple of incorrectly used words detract from the brilliance of your ideas. That's all I'm saying.

Using the correct terms gives you insight into the bigger picture. It makes you think about what you're doing instead of simply doing it, which can be dangerous.

Don't take things to extremes though...

There's a happy middle ground in all of this. You don't have to drop buzzwords just to show people you know your shit, but you do have to understand technical terms because, ultimately, they're one of the things separating you, the professional programmer from the rest of the garbage.

The solution to this? Don't just code. Read. Question. Learn.

Till next time, one good term deserves another!
T___T