# Phrases or words in your field that make it obvious speaker has no idea **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530 "2005-04-15T19:11:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/41 "2005-04-17T02:54:33Z")
> [@Kilvert's Pagan](#): > > I told my co-workers that if they’re ever at a conference or sales presentation and the speaker’s written reference is to “HIPPA” instead of “HIPAA”, they’d might as well leave the room because the person likely doesn’t know what they’re talking about. > > (For those of you not in health care, HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountabilty Act of 1996, known way back then as Kennedy-Kassebaum, and now sometimes the bane of our existence…) Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say they don’t know what they’re talking about. I work in the same field (medical software, in my case) and I see - and often make - the HIPPA/HIPAA mistake all the time. We all know what it means and how it’s supposed to be spelled. It’s just an easy typo that Spellcheck won’t catch. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/42 "2005-04-17T02:56:13Z")
> [@Cyn](#): > > “Where’s the nursery?! I wanna peek in the window and see all the babies!” > > People watch too much TV. The babies are in the room with their mothers. The ones who are not doing so hot are in the NICU, neonatal intensive care unit, and those nurses aren’t kind to strangers. I’m probably going to get my ass kicked for this when you say you’re a NICU Nurse or somesuch, but… well, here goes. I volunteered for 3 years on the Peds Ward at a large hospital in Philly, when I was 14-17. There was indeed a nursery room, on another ward, where babies spent the first few days of life until taken home. They might be nursed by Mom, and spend some time with Mom ( and family in general ), but many babies were in there for a lot of the day and night. Similarly, about 8 years ago, I spent the day shooting a job as a cameraman where I was shooting footage of babies. In the nursery. At a huge hospital in New York City. There was indeed the classic " Hollywood set" window, that ran most of one wall, from waist up to about 6 and a half feet up off the floor. The babies were indeed in rows. There was a separate inner room for the nurses and Doctors, and I shot from in there, through their observation window. So, I’ve personally seen two of these nurseries- roughly 20 years apart, in different cities. I have a hard time with the idea that these two are the only extant Nurseries in the United States. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/43 "2005-04-17T02:56:27Z")
Cardiologists don’t perform surgery, thoracic surgeons do. Lots of these surgeons consult with and get advice from cardiologists. :wally ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/44 "2005-04-17T03:11:19Z")
I heard once on the Oprah show, a profiler who tried to explain why the murderer had dressed his victim up to look like a deer, after a sheriiff had said the victim was [_dressed like a deer_.](http://www.ncdeer.com/nc_dressing_skinning.html) :wally ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/45 "2005-04-17T11:26:07Z")
> [@Agonist](#): > > Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say they don’t know what they’re talking about. I work in the same field (medical software, in my case) and I see - and often make - the HIPPA/HIPAA mistake all the time. > > We all know what it means and how it’s supposed to be spelled. It’s just an easy typo that Spellcheck won’t catch. I get that and understand. But if you were selling HIPAA-related services, or speaking to a room full of people about HIPAA, you’d think the PowerPoint slides would have gone through some level of vigilance. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/46 "2005-04-17T11:55:34Z")
Anybody who thinks professors at universities will be fired/censured/affected in any way by openly dissenting with their “bosses” (i.e. department heads or others in administration) doesn’t know much about how universities work. Any body who thinks teaching ability is rewarded regularly - ditto ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/47 "2005-04-17T13:38:07Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > I volunteered for 3 years on the Peds Ward at a large hospital in Philly, when I was 14-17. There was indeed a nursery room, on another ward, where babies spent the first few days of life until taken home. They might be nursed by Mom, and spend some time with Mom ( and family in general ), but many babies were in there for a lot of the day and night. > > Similarly, about 8 years ago, I spent the day shooting a job as a cameraman where I was shooting footage of babies. In the nursery. At a huge hospital in New York City. There was indeed the classic " Hollywood set" window, that ran most of one wall, from waist up to about 6 and a half feet up off the floor. The babies were indeed in rows. There was a separate inner room for the nurses and Doctors, and I shot from in there, through their observation window. > > So, I’ve personally seen two of these nurseries- roughly 20 years apart, in different cities. I have a hard time with the idea that these two are the only extant Nurseries in the United States. > > Cartooniverse The hospital where my kid was born (El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA) had a nursery. The babies lived there the first few days when the moms were sleeping or not feeling well after delivery. The windows were for relatives to see the new baby without disturbing Mom or Baby. I can’t believe this is an at all uncommon arrangement. [Here](http://www.bridgeporthospital.org/Birthplace/Tour15.asp) is a similar nursery at a hospital in Bridgeport, CT. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/48 "2005-04-17T17:29:57Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > Or commenting that, “I bet this will stop the presses.” (Nothing stops the presses these days). > > . I’d say this one is a generally understood colloquialism, used and understood outside your field, so I’d give this one a pass. Maybe I’ll start talking about teletypes and memory drums at my job! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/49 "2005-04-17T20:18:05Z")
> [@Shabadu](#): > > I work in the field of psychology. Nothing irritates me more than the ignorant use of the term schizophrenia. Hang on a bit, there. The general sense of “schizophrenic” to mean “containing sharp contradictions” predates the modern clinical definition of schizophrenia. When Bleuler introduced the word as a psychological term in the early twentieth century, the suggestion was that the condition was related to irreconcilable ideas creating mental conflict and disturbed behaviour, rather than physical pathology. It’s been used in a general sense (totally unrelated to psychiatry) for nearly a century. While I agree that it should on no account be used to describe MPDs, etc, or misapplied in any way when talking specifically about psychology, there’s nothing wrong with saying that “the country has been schizophrenic.” > [@](#): > > Part of this [new small-townism] is related to shifts in population inside the boundaries of our cities, **and to the schizophrenic existence of dwellers in the Limbo of suburbia, who try to live some kind of quasi-small-town “home” life while keeping in touch with the civilizing institutions of the city** : its libraries and theaters and concert halls and galleries and restaurants and sports arenas, institutions which seem to mean less and less to the life of people living in the city even when they continue to flourish. – John H. Gill There’s no suggestion of pathology, just a more literal “split-mindedness.” The word has been used this way before hallucinations were ever a prerequisite for a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, and it’s totally unrelated. A programmer might just as easily complain that people who call faeries “sprites” are misusing the word, since they are clearly not talking about a movable and scalable array of pixels. The word has a general, non-technical sense. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/50 "2005-04-17T23:16:17Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I work for a national newspaper and know for a fact (although it was before my time there) that Princess Di’s death, for one, literally “stopped the presses”. Do reporters in trenchcoats and fedoras still run in and shout “Hold the front page! I’ve got a story that will crack this city wide open!” ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/51 "2005-04-17T23:54:34Z")
Anyone who, upon learning that I’m a major in Russian studies, immediately addresses me as “tovarishch.” Ho ho! Of course the only reason I’m studying Russian is because I’m a commie, so why not call me by the form of address associated with the most murderous regime in human history. Do you give Nazi salutes to German majors as well? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/52 "2005-04-18T01:53:15Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > Anyone who, upon learning that I’m a major in Russian studies, immediately addresses me as “tovarishch.” Ho ho! Of course the only reason I’m studying Russian is because I’m a commie, so why not call me by the form of address associated with the most murderous regime in human history. Do you give Nazi salutes to German majors as well? Hold on a bit. Maybe they just don’t know that tovarishch means ‘comrade’ in the Communist sense. Remember Hanlon’s Razor. (Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.) > [@Larry Mudd](#): > > A programmer might just as easily complain that people who call faeries “sprites” are misusing the word, since they are clearly not talking about a movable and scalable array of pixels. Or they could take offense at the suggestion that all [daemons](http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/daemon.html) live in Hell. 😉 > [@ouryL](#): > > I heard once on the Oprah show, a profiler who tried to explain why the murderer had dressed his victim up to look like a deer, after a sheriiff had said the victim was dressed like a deer. If that’s true, it’s hilarious and horrifying at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/53 "2005-04-18T02:19:16Z")
I used to go out on shoots with a guy who did sound and video. That meant, he carried the BetacamSP deck, and mixed as well sometimes. He and I never got on well, I smelled bullshit a mile deep but he was both relentlessly " upbeat " and totally cocky. We had a deck go down, and while I was quietly trying to call Sony North America to get some tech help, he was loudly proclaiming to the client and the client’s client that he knew what it was, and we could all save a lot of time if we just went with his diagnosis- that it was the Heterodyne Board that had failed, and must be replaced. Fine… except that heterodyning technology went out with 3/4" Umatic machines, and was not a part of BetacamSP architecture. :wally I let him rant, got someone at Sony on the phone, used a continuity meter and quietly let the Producer know that we were down until we got a new deck. Of course, it had nothing to do with the board the fellow mentioned. It couldn’t. And then, since I’m in the Steadicam business, I have to periodically endure folks who walk up to me and inform me quite righteously as to the first feature film where it was used. A few months ago I was in Orlando at a trade show, speaking to some folks on the show floor. An arrogant :wally walked up and ( interrupting the conversation ) said loudly, " Oh yeah, the Steadicam. I bet you have no idea what movie that was made for, do you? Well, it was made for **Rocky**. That’s why everybody talks about the shot of Rocky running up the steps of the Art Museum. " I just stood there dumbfounded. What does one do? Rip the fool to shreds? Hardly wise, I am there as the demo man for the company making the Steadicam. I said the only logical thing- " Wow. I had no idea. Really??? " He nodded vigorously and moved on down the aisle. Aaaaaiieeeee. Cartooniverse ( the feature film debut of the Steadicam device was on the film **Bound For Glory** and was a crane walk-off shot to boot. ) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/54 "2005-04-18T02:44:40Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Do reporters in trenchcoats and fedoras still run in and shout “Hold the front page! I’ve got a story that will crack this city wide open!” Of course not. Reporters in fedoras and trenchcoats _call_ the City Desk (Preferably from a pay phone. In a bar.) and tell the editor to drop his cigar and give them rewrite. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/55 "2005-04-18T03:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Hold on a bit. Maybe they just don’t know that tovarishch means ‘comrade’ in the Communist sense. Remember Hanlon’s Razor. (Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.) I agree that Hanlon’s Razor definitely applies here, which is why it is an example of the speaker having no clue. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/56 "2005-04-18T04:25:10Z")
Software Engineer People who either claim they know–or want me to hire someone they represent who knows-- “Visual Basics” That last “s” on there is a dead giveaway that the person doesn’t use or know much about the language, (although they might know some simple things about how the human eye works). Similarly, I’ve been turned down for interviews because my resume said “C++” rather than “Visual C++,” and that wasn’t close enough for the HR department’s pattern matching. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/57 "2005-04-18T13:36:41Z")
> [@Shabadu](#): > > I work in the field of psychology. Nothing irritates me more than the ignorant use of the term schizophrenia. The misuse of “schizophrenic” irks me too. More from the psych front: When people speak of psychotherapy degrees When people fail to understand that “punishment” and “negative reinforcement” aren’t synonyms ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/58 "2005-04-18T14:13:38Z")
Nuke-u-lar. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/59 "2005-04-18T15:18:53Z")
Careful **kidchameleon** , you don’t want to get **Excalibre** in here. > [@TimeWinder](#): > > Similarly, I’ve been turned down for interviews because my resume said “C++” rather than “Visual C++,” and that wasn’t close enough for the HR department’s pattern matching. Ugh! Don’t get me started on the HR pattern matching! ---
**Author:** ![GraphicsGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@GraphicsGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraphicsGal)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530/60 "2005-04-18T17:08:14Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > I’m not sure I understand this question. > > I know my husband suffers from occasional olfactory and auditory hallucinations when he’s in the throes of a cluster headache. How can I tell? He keeps asking me things like, “Are you making popcorn?” or “Is that the phone?” People who are diagnosed with schizophrenia often have audiory and/or visual halucinations. People with MPD do not. If you were asked this question and knew the difference between schizophrenia and MPD, you would not have misidentified one for the other. For years, people have been misidentifying people who have MPD as being “schizophrenic,” which is not only incorrect, but wildly incorrect (Like identifying football as the same as baseball…they are both games but the similarity ends there). I think a lot of mental health professionals really hate it when people think schizophrenia and MPD are the same thing. There is still a lot of social stigma for people with chronic mental illness: ignorance just makes it that much harder for these folks to live their lives. i don’t know if that answers your question, but I hope it helps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-or-words-in-your-field-that-make-it-obvious-speaker-has-no-idea/299530.md?page=4)