There should be a version of this for hacker news comments and tech blog posts. Every time I see the phrase 'that said' or 'that being said' I involuntarily cringe.
Can you explain why? The phase allows you, after having made a point, to invert that point then suggest an alternative explanation or perspective.
I read a few of the posts in the search results, and "That being said" felt natural in many cases to join sometimes contradictory positions or different degrees of the same position together into one fluid thought.
Someone can cringe at anyone. Without offering critique, insight, or alternative it feels hollow though.
I don't really have a good explanation other than we already have words like 'However' and 'But'. It also seems redundant, maybe just start typing your contradictory position without the need for a connecting phrase?
That being said, it may just be me who is annoyed by the phrase. I think it just gets used a lot and I can't help but notice for some reason. I think I've associated the phrase with strawman arguments and my hollow cringe is unfair judgement.
I don't mind phrases like 'that being said', aside from the general critique of cliche-repetition.
To me it carries connotations of the first clause having validity while the second apparently contrasting point also has validity. Its specific purpose is to allow a connection between points, without explicitly eliminating or contradicting any of the clauses.
Using 'however' or 'but' lacks this contextualisation, and that's without getting into the criticisms of their use is popular speech and writing (i.e. when someone says two clauses of the form 'A, but B.' what they usually mean is 'B').
> I don't really have a good explanation other than we already have words like 'However' and 'But'.
'But' is very generic and 'However' is longer than 'that said'.
> It also seems redundant, maybe just start typing your contradictory position without the need for a connecting phrase?
That makes it much more difficult to keep the topic flowing, and it can be very confusing if you jump to an almost-contradiction without warning the reader that it's time to do some contrasting and fine-tuning.
We're both nitpicking at this point: "however" is shorter than "that said" according to two out of three relevant metrics:
"however": 1 word, 3 syllables, 7 characters
"that said": 2 words, 2 syllables, 9 characters
That said, it's a waste of time to worry about the difference anyway. Keep in mind that we aren't minifying JS or hand-optimizing processor code. When it comes to natural-language communication between humans, not every byte matters.
Use the words that sound natural to you for your intended audience. Weigh feedback from trusted coworkers and members of that audience.
Could the overuse of "that said" also be a reason for not liking it? I find there are many words and phrases that tend to be overused, especially in marketing and Ted talks.
Not sure what the exact complaint is here, though using said or sounds to refer to something written can be considered a defect. Comes up often in speech, too. One would substitute "read" or "reads" or something like that.
Also, using stock phrases—especially ones that are overused—where a word would do ("however" or something along those lines) is often discouraged.
I have the same cringe. I think it comes from feeling inserted as a pretense to authority by writing style. Other examples I cringe at: The use of the word "titular", the phrase "abc cum def", ... For whatever reason they sound pretentious like the author is using them to show off, not to actually inform.
Some others are "I've said it once and I'll say it again", "as I said/wrote/posted/blogged before". Those seem to suggest the author is assuming they are famous/popular enough that their previous content has been read. Of course you could look at it as they are just suggesting you go read their previous post but for whatever reason that specific way of saying it comes across less as info and more as "of course you read my previous post".
I'm aware this is a personal opinion with no basis in reality.
https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=...