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dwatttttyesterday at 2:34 PM1 replyview on HN

> I don't know why choice of language is having such sway in determining what you view as professional

This is a blog post: it's purely textual, language is the only thing it uses to convey meaning. The words chosen to do so reflect what the author thinks.

> where I'm from people just use the words they need to to communicate what they're trying to say

Yes. What ark is trying to say, via the words he chose, is what's earning him the description of "unprofessional".

He could say every factual thing in the blog post without being unprofessional, he just chose not to.


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dpatterbeeyesterday at 2:54 PM

I think you're, intentionally or not, misinterpreting my comment. Language is used to convey meaning, and Andrew wrote words that presumably meant what he meant them to mean. However, in many comments on here people are not commenting on "what he meant them to mean" and instead focusing on which words he chose to convey that meaning.

I'm sure Andrew could've switched out every word in the post and still conveyed the same meaning, and perhaps offended the peanut gallery's sensibilities a little less, but why should he?

In the example I was originally replying to, suppose Andrew had instead said "Jarred showed poorer than desired management abilities" and "Employees disliked working at Oven". Approximately the same message is communicated, a little watered-down maybe, but who's gaining from this tone-policing? Certainly not us, the readers. And I don't see how this affects how "professional" this is, unless "professional" is just performative nonsense and nothing to do with the substance of the text?

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