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Seymour Cray never said "performant". Engineers say "fast" or "fast enough". Marketing types and nontechnical management seem to prefer this neologism. But it might also be a generational thing.

A new coinage that I noticed in the past year that also grates on my ears: "learning" as a substitute for "lesson", as in "what were your learnings from the hackathon?" Anyone else caught this one?




(One of the authors here)

This is by far my favourite post in this entire thread -- I don't think I've ever seen Seymour Cray referenced as an authority in this manner before :)

Not specifically to OP, but for everyone unhappy about the use of performant: Pretty happy to concede that it isn't our finest bit of writing. Pretentiousness? Lack of technical nous? A bit of hurried/careless wording? I'll let you folks decide...


"Learnings" sounds like either a Hinglish expression, or maybe Microspeak to my ears.


Also noticed it several years ago. I may be wrong but to me it seems to have arrived from the same group that's imposed corporate-speak on boardrooms everywhere, including high-profile retreadings of words like synergy and paradigm.


Yeah, to my ears it sounds like someone is anxious that he won't be taken seriously if he uses a one-syllable word.


Past year? Past decade champ.


Maybe in Microsoft-land or certain circles, but anecdotally I've only started hearing "learnings" this year too.




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