Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by karaterobot 1137 days ago
How do we decide whether someone is using a word incorrectly, or if we should update our present reality?

Another question: are there places where accuracy and precision are more important than others? Would an encyclopedia be one of those places? I'll reveal my cards here: I believe so.

1 comments

I am happy that you brought up accuracy _and_ precision!

Somewhat humorously I think a good chunk of the disagreements here come from people treating those concepts interchangeably. Attempts to apply mathematical reasoning to language and interpretation are doomed to fall into similar traps.