Sarah Jamie Lewissarahjamielewis@mastodon.social
May 20, 2026, 10:43 PMI think I'm coming to accept that there exists a significant portion of humanity for whom words are merely decoration with no underlying purpose or meaning.
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Dan Lykedanlyke@researchbuzz.masto.hostMay 20, 2026, 10:47 PM@sarahjamielewis given reasons given by the various PhD professors who were protesting the new arXiv policy, I believe that's the only valid explanation.
There are people who generate words for other people who count the words, but there's no actual value exchanged.
Which is kind of a summary of why I dropped out of college so many decades ago, I guess...
May 20, 2026, 10:55 PMAt best.
At worst, for a significant portion of humanity, words are merely a fraught minefield of lossy compression, that serve more to interfere with and frustrate purpose and meaning than to reveal such.
Which is to say, for a significant portion of humanity, purpose and meaning are only related to words insofar as words are the only game going for attempting hamfistedly to communicate purpose and meaning.
Attempts made all the more frustrating by those of us who insist on words having an underlying purpose or meaning, as that insistence always seems to be how attempts to communicate break down.
If we'd just stop focusing on the words, they would tell us, we might actually listen to what the words are getting in the way of: this being the position of said significant portion of humanity.