The Curse of a Name: How to Kill a Good Idea

cyanoacry · on Nov 29, 2014

Six sigma is actually alive and well, and in my experience refers to a well-defined set of methodologies for production efficiency. There are certification bodies that run programs dedicated to it[2]. It might not be necessarily intelligent (akin to the ISO 9000 quality standards), but it is a real deal.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Six_Sigma_certification...

rubiquity · on Nov 29, 2014

Great post. I think good teams with talented, and most importantly disciplined, people can still extract the meaning behind these terms. For the mediocre companies and teams, these acronyms and terms are just lip service to attract and fool employees.

Oh, and who could forget... The consultants! Consultants love love love these words.

ssivark · on Nov 29, 2014

I'd like to see examples of the converse -- good ideas that were killed by bad naming. Not quite an objective measure, but I feel this might be quite enlightening.

peterkelly · on Nov 29, 2014

- The Cloud

yourad_io · on Nov 29, 2014

> The Cloud

Quite poetic, how that word, of all words, has come to have such a nebulous meaning.

Another favourite of mine:

- Hacker

I so prefer (and identity with) the "tinkerer" definition, rather than the popularly accepted "cracker/cyber-criminal" one.

I think I speak on behalf of all H^H^H^HTinkerers: we would like our fucking word back now, please.

yourad_io · on Nov 29, 2014

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hacker#q=define+hacker

hacker ˈhakə noun

1. a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data.

2. a person or thing that hacks or cuts roughly.

And only after you expand it, do you get under (1):

> informal an enthusiastic and skilful computer programmer or user

...which isn't exactly it, either. Also, I seem to remember it "google define" used to name the sources, but it doesn't seem to do so for this one.

Wikipedia is right on the money, though [1] [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(term)

jackgavigan · on Nov 29, 2014

aka Someone Else's Servers.