05 Jun1996 updated
It is the warmth which greets you first,
wraps you in smooth arms,
charms you with soft breath,
and breaks the news of birth on the dawn.
Now the birds, whose songs alone
had not yet torn through veils of dream,
sweep sleep from mind’s door
and call you to the sharp edge of wake.
Light comes next in one strong thrust
which makes its sole aim known:
this day can not wait to primp or plan.
You must get up and face the sun,
your task to fill the cask of life
with not a drop to waste.
Perhaps you see no immediate connection between my vain attempt at capturing the essence of morning in Hawaii and the more usual content of this space, i.e., something relating to information systems architecture. Well, I think there is and it has to with the use, and abuse, of words in our trade.
First, my thanks to Richard Lederer, whose modest volume titled The Miracle of Language (Pocket Books, 1991, ISBN 0-671-70939-9) inspired me to the exercise above. His challenge was simple: to demonstrate the rich expressive power of the English language, say something well in words of only one syllable.
Now, if you think my modest offering makes a point, please contrast that approach, admittedly extreme, with a casual sampling of the torrent of words which runs over us daily (deliberately unattributed):
Combining the distributed messaging capabilities of ORBs with database middleware’s high-performance data access "makes ORBs commercially viable," ...
The waterfall lifecycle can delay problem identification.
This session discusses Intranet economics, looks at web access to structured information, and discusses appropriate enabling technologies.
The first open and independent software solution that covers all of your existing systems.
It took a while to make our application a container and to get it to talk to the first foreign back-end.
Notice I have not included egregious examples of double-talk devoid of useful meaning. None of the people quoted above was misusing words or throwing them about loosely. No, the problem, aside from ignorant copywriters with long budgets and short deadlines, is an explosion of ideas with no ready vocabulary.
Furthermore, the things about which we speak in our trade are largely intangible, mere figments of our imagination. So we are allowed, even compelled, to weave elaborate wordy images which can never be tested against touch-and-feel reality.
Is there then a lesson? Use less words; use them well. Think on each one and strike out all which add nothing to your message. If you must paint a picture, do so - stretch your imagination for a way to draw the concept, rather than say it. And be careful with the language. It is easily tarnished and corrupted by constant abuse.
