Everyday acronyms are some of the most usefwl innovations for making language more efficient. Conlangs are too hard to make well and too expensive to coordinate switching to, but we can profitably innovate on the margin.
By default there’s huge inertia to how fast language evolves to fit the new purposes it’s being used for, and that inertia is proportional to the number of people who use the archaic term for that purpose. Ever notice how we still have terms like “probability”, “Nash equilibrium”, and “independent impression” despite how long they are and how often we (should) use them?
But we don’t have to settle for default growth! As long as we have common knowledge that trying to innovate this is a good thing (as opposed to everyone believing that coining new terms is the ultimate act of hubris and needs to be punished), we can constantly be trying out new forms. I’d prefer if enthusiasm were the default response to someone trying to make up new words, and punishment/disappointment only be issued after evaluating the suggestion as bad enough that you’d want to discourage the effort.
I think ideally we should spend a much larger fraction of our talking time on debating which terms to use. Or better yet, have a central real-time voting database, sort of like a weaker form of an assurance contract implemented via a crowdaction platform. On the platform, people (preferably LW user accounts) can informally commit to use a new term conditional upon N other people also committing to it.
Communities that are comfortable with “internet slang” have a massive advantage due to their willingness to use new terms. Sometimes they even compete to use the newest terms. Imagine the power we’d have if we could learn from some of that culture! What we have instead is a very strict informal regulation on who’s allowed to even suggest new terms, lest they be exiled for the crime of status-grabbing above their station.
A selection of acronyms maybe you’d like to use
One danger with importing acronyms like these instead of inventing our own is that we’re clogging up the short-word space with code that’s not optimised for our own semantic distribution, and we might wish to reserve room for our own potential shibboleths there. So the list below only contains words I presently want to see used, minus some that I’m pretty confident most everyone here knows.[1]
til = today i learned jic = just in case icymi = in case you missed it (new to me, but icymi I really like this one!) omw = on my way lmk = let me know ikr = i know right rn = right now wbu = what about you mb = my bad (sorry) imo = in my opinion afaict = as far as i can tell afaic = as far as i care fwiw = for what its worth iirc = if i recall correctly tmk = to my knowledge smh = shake my head nbd = no big deal jk = just kidding /s = [indicates sarcasm] ily = i love you gmta = great minds think aliek soml = story of my life
I have many (~50) suggestions for actual new words I’d maybe like to see used, but I’m refraining from posting them here because I want the take-home message to be about the enterprise itself, and not about my specific suggestions.
acronyms ftw
Everyday acronyms are some of the most usefwl innovations for making language more efficient. Conlangs are too hard to make well and too expensive to coordinate switching to, but we can profitably innovate on the margin.
By default there’s huge inertia to how fast language evolves to fit the new purposes it’s being used for, and that inertia is proportional to the number of people who use the archaic term for that purpose. Ever notice how we still have terms like “probability”, “Nash equilibrium”, and “independent impression” despite how long they are and how often we (should) use them?
But we don’t have to settle for default growth! As long as we have common knowledge that trying to innovate this is a good thing (as opposed to everyone believing that coining new terms is the ultimate act of hubris and needs to be punished), we can constantly be trying out new forms. I’d prefer if enthusiasm were the default response to someone trying to make up new words, and punishment/disappointment only be issued after evaluating the suggestion as bad enough that you’d want to discourage the effort.
I think ideally we should spend a much larger fraction of our talking time on debating which terms to use. Or better yet, have a central real-time voting database, sort of like a weaker form of an assurance contract implemented via a crowdaction platform. On the platform, people (preferably LW user accounts) can informally commit to use a new term conditional upon N other people also committing to it.
Communities that are comfortable with “internet slang” have a massive advantage due to their willingness to use new terms. Sometimes they even compete to use the newest terms. Imagine the power we’d have if we could learn from some of that culture! What we have instead is a very strict informal regulation on who’s allowed to even suggest new terms, lest they be exiled for the crime of status-grabbing above their station.
A selection of acronyms maybe you’d like to use
One danger with importing acronyms like these instead of inventing our own is that we’re clogging up the short-word space with code that’s not optimised for our own semantic distribution, and we might wish to reserve room for our own potential shibboleths there. So the list below only contains words I presently want to see used, minus some that I’m pretty confident most everyone here knows.[1]
til = today i learned
jic = just in case
icymi = in case you missed it (new to me, but icymi I really like this one!)
omw = on my way
lmk = let me know
ikr = i know right
rn = right now
wbu = what about you
mb = my bad (sorry)
imo = in my opinion
afaict = as far as i can tell
afaic = as far as i care
fwiw = for what its worth
iirc = if i recall correctly
tmk = to my knowledge
smh = shake my head
nbd = no big deal
jk = just kidding
/s = [indicates sarcasm]
ily = i love you
gmta = great minds think aliek
soml = story of my life
[2]
I have many (~50) suggestions for actual new words I’d maybe like to see used, but I’m refraining from posting them here because I want the take-home message to be about the enterprise itself, and not about my specific suggestions.
And a few bonus acronyms for special operations :p
paw = parents are watching
poms = parent over my shoulder
kpc = keeping parents clueless