[anoy8888]

I don’t understand why people redefine words just make their point. It can be confusing at best and at worst change the me meaning of words when it becomes viral. “Smart” people means smart people. It shouldn’t be used to mean junior dev who are trying to hard to prove themselves and over engineer or choose the wrong approach. So many words have changed their original meaning because someone decides to write a viral post and redefine words to make a point

[chpmrc]

Oh what an accomplishment it would be, to be able to change the meaning of the word "smart" with a single article!

(Don't take it too seriously, like I said this is mostly a brain dump, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that can be improved)

[JohnBooty]

I like your usage of "smart" in the article.

I see this challenge a lot in the industry. The young engineers truly are smart, even brilliant, but lack wisdom and experience.

[chpmrc]

I completely agree. "Smart" isn't used sarcastically here. It's an adjective that most young devs would (rightfully) like to be referred to as. But I see experienced devs as less interested in looking/being "smart" (or clever or whatever word you want to use) and just getting things done in a way that allows the org to make money and get rid of BS (unrelated to the above) as much as possible.

Maybe there's a better way to outline this difference.

[routerl]

Oh right, the "original meaning" of "smart"... so you must mean "pain or ache"? I really don't see how that's relevant to the article.

Words change, they always have, they always will. Get over it.

And anyway, the article's usage is consistent with the well-established phrase "smart guy", within which the word "smart" carries a sarcastic and derisive tone.

[gwright]

> Words change, they always have, they always will. Get over it.

While this is true, I think it is helpful to communication to resist changes to language. This isn't the same thing as opposing change entirely, but language needs to have a certain stability and common understanding to maximize its usefulness.

[routerl]

> I think it is helpful to communication to resist changes to language

Your opinion is wrong. The most widely spoken languages, in every historical period, are the most adaptable. Adaptability is the single most important factor in a language's ability to survive, in a useful/usable/used state, and always has been.

[chrisfowles]

One of the reasons that English has been so successful as a global business language is its ability to be flexible and splodgable and still make sense.