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Words are Hard

hackerschool.com

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Re: Words are Hard

#31

Post by read »

davidbalbert wrote: post #22
hawkharris wrote: post #12

Words are easier once you recognize that the official title of a person, product or organization actually communicates very little to people outside of the organization. Working in communications, I've seen many instances of groups using acronyms and catchy titles to brand (or rebrand) themselves. For example: - After much deliberation, a health care center decided to call its members "HARP," which stood for Health A…

OP here. After reading through the reactions to this post, I think the biggest thing I missed is explaining why we need a word at all. The primary reason to have a word is that we can have something to refer to ourselves (where "we" are members of the Hacker School community). I think most communities come up with words to refer to their members. It certainly happened in ours: there are a handful of words that people…

Random question: why is there a random-length HTML comment in your blog post?

Re: Words are Hard

#33

Post by funthree »

jfarmer wrote: post #2

For those who dug this essay, check out Wiio's Laws: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/wiio.html

So after being reminded of this, they should just call it the NY Hacker Apprenticeship and have their logo be a young female hacker. Too good?

Re: Words are Hard

#34

Post by bertil »

Jayschwa wrote: post #19
funthree wrote: post #7

Apprentice, journeyman or fellow, and Master edit: The real question is, how do you get this far without knowing you are running an Apprenticeship? https://www.hackerschool.com/about

I don't think "apprenticeship" is a fitting label. It implies that participants are newbies (some are, some aren't) or that there is some kind of structure or training.

I was about to suggest ‘apprentice’ as a reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnons_du_Tour_de_France but then again, I realised I had little idea how Hacker school approaches their role. A similar binomial role is found at the same period (i.e. early Middle-ages until now) among some monks, generally travelling ones: the younger ones are ‘novice’.

(For geeky reference: either presumably inspired the Jedi/Padawan structure.)

Re: Words are Hard

#35

Post by drewbug »

read wrote: post #31
davidbalbert wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. After reading through the reactions to this post, I think the biggest thing I missed is explaining why we need a word at all. The primary reason to have a word is that we can have something to refer to ourselves (where "we" are members of the Hacker School community). I think most communities come up with words to refer to their members. It certainly happened in ours: there are a handful of words that people…

Random question: why is there a random-length HTML comment in your blog post?

https://github.com/meldium/breach-mitigation-rails

Re: Words are Hard

#36

Post by username223 »

jfarmer wrote: post #21
shittyanalogy wrote: post #4

You never explained why you need to refer to them as anything. So they can feel part of a team? To refer collectively to them easily in meetings? Why not just use: Participants Attendees Customers But really you should just refer to them as people. The people who take courses with you are just people. Not hackers, or students, or WildCats or Urban Achievers. People. People and customers. Customeople. As for the schoo…

Let's conduct a simple thought experiment. I'm attending Hacker School. A friend I haven't seen in a few months comes up and asks, "So, what are you doing these days?" I respond with something like Oh, I'm an X at Hacker School Oh, I'm Y-ing at Hacker School So, it's not a matter of "need" — X and Y are going to be filled with something even if Hacker School has no opinion on the matter. What's more, no student is ev…

For all X and Y, there's still the problem of the speaker being associated with something called "Hacker School." Just like "Beefcake School," "Baller School," "Stud School," or any other "Positive Connotation to a Certain Demographic School," it doesn't pass the laugh test.

Re: Words are Hard

#37

Post by snowwrestler »

If someone is participating in your program you can always just call them a participant. It comes with a light load of connotation and while boring, is descriptive enough to indicate the relative equality of the relationship.

Re: Words are Hard

#38

Post by gruseom »

tomcam wrote: post #13

"Colleague" is the term used in some European languages. But really--get over yourselves. No one really cares.

There's no need to be rude. Some people care. I think it's an interesting verbal conundrum.

Re: Words are Hard

#40

Post by jfarmer »

username223 wrote: post #36
jfarmer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's conduct a simple thought experiment. I'm attending Hacker School. A friend I haven't seen in a few months comes up and asks, "So, what are you doing these days?" I respond with something like Oh, I'm an X at Hacker School Oh, I'm Y-ing at Hacker School So, it's not a matter of "need" — X and Y are going to be filled with something even if Hacker School has no opinion on the matter. What's more, no student is ev…

For all X and Y, there's still the problem of the speaker being associated with something called "Hacker School." Just like "Beefcake School," "Baller School," "Stud School," or any other "Positive Connotation to a Certain Demographic School," it doesn't pass the laugh test.

Is this the "username223 Laugh Test" or something more universal?
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