Who cares? You can still use “schelling point” to discuss coordination by unstated shared background knowledge, even if it’s ALSO used to mean any piece of common knowledge.
You can, but then it’ll be unclear whether you’re using the “common” or “true jargon” meaning whenever you could legitimately mean either. (In the OP’s examples, both the common and true-jargon meanings of “Schelling point” were potentially relevant.) Even if you build a reputation for always using the original meanings of words, there will be people who don’t know the original meaning, and people who don’t know of your reputation. Some people will misinterpret you unless you explicitly state “the Schelling point, as in the original sense of an unstated but agreed-upon point” each time you use it for the first time in a given context.
In short, having two words in the same semantic space causes misunderstandings and frustration. You can get around it by essentially assigning the technical term to a longer word (“Schelling point but, you know, the actual one” instead of simply “Schelling point”), but this has its costs. (See: how shorter words feel more fundamental. Calling the rapid-takeoff intelligence explosion “FOOM” was probably wise, naming “coordination failures” Moloch was probably the single most effective way of getting people to fight them, etc.)
You can, but then it’ll be unclear whether you’re using the “common” or “true jargon” meaning whenever you could legitimately mean either. (In the OP’s examples, both the common and true-jargon meanings of “Schelling point” were potentially relevant.) Even if you build a reputation for always using the original meanings of words, there will be people who don’t know the original meaning, and people who don’t know of your reputation. Some people will misinterpret you unless you explicitly state “the Schelling point, as in the original sense of an unstated but agreed-upon point” each time you use it for the first time in a given context.
In short, having two words in the same semantic space causes misunderstandings and frustration. You can get around it by essentially assigning the technical term to a longer word (“Schelling point but, you know, the actual one” instead of simply “Schelling point”), but this has its costs. (See: how shorter words feel more fundamental. Calling the rapid-takeoff intelligence explosion “FOOM” was probably wise, naming “coordination failures” Moloch was probably the single most effective way of getting people to fight them, etc.)