[perl4ever]

What I think is going on here is that such titles are subverting axioms of conversations that give language meaning normally.

It's perfectly reasonable in general to say it took you 3 years when you weren't actually working on it all that time. Like, say, if you were talking to a friend who you tell everything to.

But when it's in a title or headline, it's implicitly presumed to be the most significant thing about your story to a stranger, thus what makes it notable and interesting. Given that baseline, one tends to interpret it as meaning you were working most of the time on it, because that makes it worthy of attention.

That's why it seems not unexpected to me for a person to feel disappointed and mislead.

[marviel]

I appreciate the sincerity and depth of your analysis. This nicely wraps words around a concept which I had considered, but never organized well, and previously never expressed. Nice work

[perl4ever]

Well, that was mostly inspired by something known as Grice's Maxims. I read about them years ago and immediately thought someone should write extensively on how discourse in reality not only often relies on assuming them, but also frequently subverts them, cooperatively or maliciously. But I'm too lazy.

[marviel]

Even better -- you've now given me a term to research further!