Friday, October 22, 2010

Words of Wisdom from Bill James

"To use academic jargon is rude, lazy, elitist, and counter-productive. It diminishes the influence of the academic world; it diminishes the influence of thinking people on the general debate. If you want people to accept your ideas, you have to speak in language that others can understand. This is common sense, and it is common courtesy."

Amen.

(Of course, one needs to be precise in journal articles, but that doesn't mean that certain things can't be made understandable or that we can't speak and write things in other venues to help facilitate understanding. Anyway, the point is: Know thy audience!)

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