I think this applies to everything right now. Papers like this are just ridiculous examples. In like, 6th grade I won second place at the LA county science fair for coding a simulation of a coyote's life in hypercard (with tons of graphs). Yay. Y'know what? That shit and those graphs would've been incomprehensible to the judges if it hadn't been written in plain language, in an attempt to make them understand what they were looking at. My entire career since has been an attempt to communicate and alleviate the pain points in communication between parties, by way of writing software that encapsulated their descriptions of what they needed. And likewise I never pretended to be smarter or know more than my clients did: Everything must be explained and comprehensible in normal people language. People need to know how shit works, especially if they're paying for it.
Or they should.
Or if they don't know and don't care, they're fucking negligent.
Especially if they say "wow that sounds smart, let's let these guys run our weapons program".
To your point, the reason this ornate language thrives and people get away with complacency about how their own systems work, boils down to a silent pact between managers and engineers to sweep everything under the rug out of laziness and ill-will. There's something blatantly mendacious and evil (in the banal way) about the agreement that managers approve black boxes which were approved by complex-sounding papers so that upper management can wash their hands of the results.
[edit] maybe I'm just bitter because I spent hours today pondering exactly how many engineers at Monsanto must have known about the dangers of the astroturf, and how many raised their hand, or hid behind a spreadsheet
Or they should.
Or if they don't know and don't care, they're fucking negligent.
Especially if they say "wow that sounds smart, let's let these guys run our weapons program".
To your point, the reason this ornate language thrives and people get away with complacency about how their own systems work, boils down to a silent pact between managers and engineers to sweep everything under the rug out of laziness and ill-will. There's something blatantly mendacious and evil (in the banal way) about the agreement that managers approve black boxes which were approved by complex-sounding papers so that upper management can wash their hands of the results.
[edit] maybe I'm just bitter because I spent hours today pondering exactly how many engineers at Monsanto must have known about the dangers of the astroturf, and how many raised their hand, or hid behind a spreadsheet
https://frontofficesports.com/investigation-links-astroturf-...