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Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

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Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#111

Post by KineticLensman »

nazgulsenpai wrote: post #25
dwoldrich wrote: post #8

Value is now only _extracted_. Place the acquired good into the press and smash it until all but the faintest essence remains among the mash. The squeezings are bottled and saved to pay for future _extractions_. Companies like Valve can continue largely unshittificated because they are private. Once that is no longer the case, all our game rentals will be squozen away from us.

TIL squozen is the past participle of squeeze, but only because I first thought hah this guy is making words up. Foiled again!

I looked 'squeeze' up in the (paywalled) Oxford English Dictionary [0]. The are numerous variant forms including 'squoze' and 'squozen':

"Also 1600s squeez, squeaze, squease, squese, 1600s–1700s squeese. Also with dialect preterite and past participle 1800s– squoze, past participle 1800s squozen."

The OED cites quotations from the 1930s, 1870s, and 1860s that include 'squoze' and 'squozen', for example ‘Orange?’ repeated Waitress No. 1. ‘Do you want it squoze?’ in the Baltimore Sun, 1 Sep 1931.

[0] https://www.oed.com/dictionary/squeeze_v?tab=forms#21076314

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#112

Post by spacechild1 »

OroPla wrote: post #36

German here. A "Verschlimmbesserung" is something that makes one part better and another part worse. If it only makes things worse you don't need a German word for it, you can just call it worse. For things that were intended good, but ended up bad, there's an English idiom: the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

No, just no.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#113

Post by rwoerz »

OroPla wrote: post #36

German here. A "Verschlimmbesserung" is something that makes one part better and another part worse. If it only makes things worse you don't need a German word for it, you can just call it worse. For things that were intended good, but ended up bad, there's an English idiom: the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

I think that's a subtle Verschlimmbesserung of the original definition.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#114

Post by gpvos »

pseudohadamard wrote: post #81
OroPla wrote: post #36

German here. A "Verschlimmbesserung" is something that makes one part better and another part worse. If it only makes things worse you don't need a German word for it, you can just call it worse. For things that were intended good, but ended up bad, there's an English idiom: the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

As opposed to Vershittification, the perfect union of terms from the two languages.

Verscheißifizierung

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#115

Post by RetroTechie »

andai wrote: post #102
arjan_sch wrote: post #16

What about "worseprovement"

How about "bloat". Something that doesn't need to be there, and it would be better if it wasn't, but it was typically added with some misguided "good intentions". Bloat. This also applies to changing something. If it was perfect, and you changed it, and now it's not perfect anymore, then the work itself didn't need to happen, and was therefore bloat. Most work is bloat. But we have tied continued existence to work (m…

Bloat refers to quantitative apects like increased cpu/ram/storage requirements.

Article discusses qualitative aspects a la "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#118

Post by andai »

RetroTechie wrote: post #115
andai wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about "bloat". Something that doesn't need to be there, and it would be better if it wasn't, but it was typically added with some misguided "good intentions". Bloat. This also applies to changing something. If it was perfect, and you changed it, and now it's not perfect anymore, then the work itself didn't need to happen, and was therefore bloat. Most work is bloat. But we have tied continued existence to work (m…

Bloat refers to quantitative apects like increased cpu/ram/storage requirements. Article discusses qualitative aspects a la "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Interesting. By this definition, a poorly chosen algorithm is also "bloat", which doesn't seem right to me.

I see bloat mostly as "unnecessary dependencies." Things which, if you removed them, the product would improve.

e.g. importing a whole library for what could have been a simple function.

If something justifies its "weight", then it's not bloat. It's functional.

But there's also "feature bloat." If a feature or change doesn't need to exist, or makes things worse, then it's bloat. If you removed it, the project would improve.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#119

Post by quink »

Youden wrote: post #52
OroPla wrote: post #36

German here. A "Verschlimmbesserung" is something that makes one part better and another part worse. If it only makes things worse you don't need a German word for it, you can just call it worse. For things that were intended good, but ended up bad, there's an English idiom: the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

Not a German but Duden disagrees with you [0]: "etwas in der Absicht, es zu verbessern, schlechter machen". [0]: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/verschlimmbessern

I still agree with parent’s definition more because it also covers the ironic, sarcastic case, as well as the inherent ambiguity of the word ‘besser’. Plainly put, ‘better’ for who?

If you just say it as a logical series of making it worse while making it better you miss that the intention of the ‘better’ is the first place wasn’t even the intention to make it better for the user.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#120

Post by N_Lens »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #32
dwoldrich wrote: post #8

Value is now only _extracted_. Place the acquired good into the press and smash it until all but the faintest essence remains among the mash. The squeezings are bottled and saved to pay for future _extractions_. Companies like Valve can continue largely unshittificated because they are private. Once that is no longer the case, all our game rentals will be squozen away from us.

Gabe Newell has an $11bn net worth so he hasn't exactly been not squeezing.

I think his company has created far more value and goodwill than his networth indicates. True juicers like Bezos and Musk are different.
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