Am I the only one who uses a search engine while reading comment threads about industries/technologies I am not familiar with?
No. And yet... it's considered a Good Practice to expand acronyms on first use, and generally do things to reduce the friction for your audience to understand what you're writing.
and generally do things to reduce the friction for your audience to understand what you're writing
Sure, if you're writing a blogpost titled "Architecture for Chefs" then yes, write with that audience in mind.
But we're a mix-match of folks here, from all different walks of life. Requiring that everyone should expand all acronyms others possibly might not understand, would just be a waste of time.
If I see two cooks discussing knives with terms I don't understand, is it really their responsibility to make sure I understand it, although I'm just a passive observer, and I posses the skill to look up things myself?
But we're a mix-match of folks here, from all different walks of life. Requiring that everyone should expand all acronyms others possibly might not understand, would just be a waste of time.
Exactly!
Why would I waste 5 seconds of my own time, when I could waste 5 seconds of a dozen to hundreds of people's time?
My time is much better spent in meta-discussions, informing people that writing out a word one single time instead of typing up the acronym is too much.
Comments
Am I the only one who uses a search engine while reading comment threads about industries/technologies I am not familiar with?
No. And yet... it's considered a Good Practice to expand acronyms on first use, and generally do things to reduce the friction for your audience to understand what you're writing.
Sure, if you're writing a blogpost titled "Architecture for Chefs" then yes, write with that audience in mind.
But we're a mix-match of folks here, from all different walks of life. Requiring that everyone should expand all acronyms others possibly might not understand, would just be a waste of time.
If I see two cooks discussing knives with terms I don't understand, is it really their responsibility to make sure I understand it, although I'm just a passive observer, and I posses the skill to look up things myself?
Exactly!
Why would I waste 5 seconds of my own time, when I could waste 5 seconds of a dozen to hundreds of people's time?
My time is much better spent in meta-discussions, informing people that writing out a word one single time instead of typing up the acronym is too much.