Hammer Words: Nailing Down Meaning and Mismeaning

[keirsey]

He had this look in his eye. He knew the answer. He was certain.

He drew up, paused, and slowly readied himself for the assault --- chalk in hand, poised to hit the board.

He glared at the audience and said: Bayes.

He had just demolished in his own mind, the enemy. That hack of a job, not theoretically grounded -- that gibberish of ad-hoc computation used by MYCIN and PROSPECTOR. Crazy! Silly! Why did they use such sloppy kludges! He had the better solution. "Bayes" -- Bayesian theory could answer it all....

Bayesian this, Bayesian that, he rammed his argument into his audience, flittering for one mathematical equation to another -- from one argument to another, with a real vehemence. He prowled back and forth, for the entire talk. Bayes formula. Bayesian. Vanquishing all opponents, real or imagined, once and for all. In the end, the audience was silent, not a single objection or comment.

Those who travel in academic circles, or religious circles, or even political circles know the feeling. The hammer words change for each domain, but the same thing happens. People use their words to vanquish the demons and heathens among them, make sure the faithful know that the speaker is one of them. In fact we all know the feeling -- we have done it ourselves, many a time.

Hammer words. BAYESIAN, JESUS, JUSTICE, and DEMOCRACY. Touchstone words. Magic to those who utter them. Arguments to and fro, winding down many roads -- the word keeps coming up..

Argument over argument --- each person eventually trots out his own HAMMER words. Those magical words that solve the problem. If only our opponents would get it.

So what are your hammer words? WE ALL HAVE THEM.

Here are just a few that I have encountered: QCD, Kalman filters, unitary, homomorphism, Category theory, peace, fair, greed, evolution, entropy, self-organization, just, wholeness, humanity, natural, global warming, elite, allah akbar.

[mkb32]

empowerment, social consciousness, gay, freedom, therapy, dope, mental health, victim.
I'm not sure what MY hammer word is but I am capable of making a point with, "Don't make me ..."

[Goodrum]

Hammer words...(a gentle? hammer ):

Beautiful

Integrity

Honesty

Dream

Learning curve

Creative

Peace

Vision

Knowledge!

Yeah, I do have a little cupboard of hammer words...had never thought (realised) about it, interesting.

[estanford]

Dude, I think you just described my vocabulary. ("I know YOU think it's obvious, but your noetic-intentional schemata are asynechdocally constituted!") Knowing the right words is a source of power -- mastering new 'hammer' words has an almost magical potential to persuade others and catalyze deeper understanding. That is, when they don't make everything hopelessly obscure.


Hammer words I have seen and known:

Phenomenological
Kuhnian
Epideictic
Gavel (it's a type of hammer, I guess.)
Foam hammer
Rice bowl
XML
Object-Oriented
Systems-Oriented
Cloud computing
Synecdoche
Free market
Invisible hand
Invisible pocket (As in, what the invisible hand was picking)
Socialism
Communism
Capitalism
Socialized medicine
Vortex ring state
Bob Forehead
Relativistic
Quantum
Subjective
Objective
Sticktoitiveness

[GatorMike]

Efficiency
Struggle
Organic
Unification
Tactical
Ace

[Architron]

The most prominent in the recent years:

Terror. (And all derivatives).

[keirsey]

Terror move over.. Stimulus

[Architron]

Terror move over.. Stimulus

... and "Change" & "Hope."

[jwetmore]

The Sunday morning news magazine shows, with their extensive coverage of political issues, are fantastic venues for obseving temperament interaction and learning hammer words.

Yesterday, one of the programs had Senator Charles Schumer as a guest, defending (and attacking opponents of) the stimulus package. My initial reaction was that he was using Guardian language attacking opponents of the stimulus bill. He chiefly appealed to authority and to the preservation of institutions, and not a bit to reason, and not to previous experience (where stimulus has largely been inefective). I wish I had been paying close enough attention to remember the some of the phrases he used and make a more compelling post by offering edidence, not just reaction. (I know little about Chuck Schumer - except that his advocacy for increasing home ownership through the use of subprime mortgages and pressuring banks to make loans to less credit-worthy borrowers has been suggested by some to be more important to understanding our current economic situation than believing the "greedy" bankers are the root cause. So I do not not have a guess at his temperament.)

Because of my occupation, I am exposed to Guardians and know their hammer words well. Their reliance on traditional authority and their defense of existing institutions seems to set them apart. I expect we could group hammer words by temerament type. The use of particular words and phrases would be strong indications about temperament - taking into account the versatility of some groups (Inventor Rationals for example) to tailor their rehtoric to appeal to wider groups of people. Any thoughts anyone?

[Newmarket]

Solutions seeking problems All too familiar.

Different policy studies have in fact shown that especially the vagueness of 'hammer words' filled intervention programs, can actually lead to further diffusion of these programs.

Busy scheduled (and 'well informed') managers can immediately - in a abstract sense- grasp the 'relevance' of these interventions, whether it's about liveability, social cohesion, empowerment,... Catchy (or should we say fuzzy) concepts work. The power of these catchwords have been emphasized by various scientific disciplines and a a whole lot of research (just this week a research in Europe stated the importance and typical charcateristics of these buzz-words and its ability to 'control' diffusion). Though I like nudging, I hate the word I love to put people 'in their strength', but wait...

Sad but true the fieldworkers working with the intervention programs are often telling a different story.
The vagueness and general statements get' them nowhere and their organizations (especially within networks of organizations working together), are confronted by general ambiguity, unclear goals and means in working practice, and overall differences between the 'policy-reference' and the 'task on the field'. Fuzzy concepts can indeed get quite fuzzy results (but are we noticing it?)

I'm not saying here that these hammer words cannot have a function (being familiar with often used concepts, can enhance trust, efficiency and improve decision making).

The question remains whether these are the right decisions.

I like Deborah Stone's position on policy paradoxes here, see Policy Paradox