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SaidAchmiz comments on Cargo Cult Language - Less Wrong Discussion

-1 Post author: SaidAchmiz 05 February 2012 09:32PM

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Comment author: SaidAchmiz 06 February 2012 12:49:47AM *  4 points [-]

Agh! I meant "polynomial" instead of "geometric". Yes, "geometric" is the same as "exponential". Edited. (How embarrassing.)

Comment author: Incorrect 06 February 2012 01:32:04AM 4 points [-]

So did you "really know what you're saying and mean to say it" or were you "simply parroting"?

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 06 February 2012 01:50:30AM 3 points [-]

Heh.

In seriousness, I don't take typos / slips of the tongue / accidental word substitutions / etc. to be examples of what I'm talking about. As I said in my reply to drethelin, cargo cult language is one cause of word/phrase misuse, not the only use. The cases where someone corrects you, or asks for clarification, and you go "ah yeah, whoops, of course I meant X and not Y", are not cargo cult language, I'd say. I don't take such cases to make a difference to the point, which applies when people are intentionally saying something which has a meaning that they aren't aware of.