Jargon

What is jargon? Some folks think it's gobbledygook invented by one group of individuals to keep everyone else mystified about what the first group is saying. Still, we all use jargon in our work. People in the publishing industry refer to text as "copy". Cops call suspects "perps."

People in the computer field have developed so much jargon, in so many sub-domains, that there are entire web sites devoted to the particular jargon that these sub-cultures use. One, The Jargon File, is devoted to the language of hackers. There are other that describe the slang used by system administrators, software engineers, etc.

Jargon is verbal and written shorthand that is useful because it ensures accurate communication and saves time over the course of a professional interaction. When one IT technician says to another "Let's move the XP boxes over here and put the Vista boxes there," he knows that his peer is not going to look around for shrink wrapped boxes with Microsoft Vista or Windows XP DVDs inside.

Problems arise only when a member of one culture has to interface with a member of another culture. At that point, both people have to find a baseline of communication and stick to it. If the IT guy has to to report to a non-IT department manager which computers were moved where, he should say "We moved the computers running the Windows Vista operating system to this side of the room, while those running the Windows XP operating system were placed over there. Should we mark them so that the employees who need to use each type of operating system know where to sit?"

Yes, it may take a few seconds or minutes more than using jargon, but you will have successfully communicated your point, and not incidentally have shown your mastery the most complex jargon of all - human language.