Language in Code

(Going back over my old work, I sometimes find pieces that I simply cannot believe I actually wrote. This is one of them, from 2006. At the time, I was working inside a low-profile tech startup founded and led by a billionaire.)

I know that most people who read this do not work in Silicon Valley, where I do. As a writer, and a teacher of writing, I am acutely aware of how off-putting insider lingo can be. Here's off the top of my head, a sample of how we talk day to day:

Scope creep
Iteration
Monetize
Page config
Style Sheets
RSS
Navigation
Interactivity
Connectivity
Load
Dev
Scrum
Server
Architecture
Surfacing
Categorization
Bandwidth
Granularity
Sprint
Epic
UI
Interface
Program
Content
Noise
Signal
Back office
Front office
Release
Keystroke
Usability
Click tracks
QA
Pipe
Colo
Toolbar
User-generated
Pixels
Optimize
Tables
Link
Post
ITS
Chip
Memory
Functionality
Feature Set
Html
File sharing
Mouse over
Flouts
Scroll down
CPC
IP
Xml
Resin
NetApp
DNS
API
Objects
Template
A build
Recency

If you have any questions, just ask. But please do not expect that I can actually answer them. Because I am a student in the Valley, not a teacher. There is a lot of meaning imbedded in this dialect, but it reveals itself only slowly, like the skins peeling off an onion.

The end result, when we get it right, is a product that you may depend on.. Few others here will say this, but the march of technology that engulfs us scares even those of us creating it. We don't know where it is headed All we can hope is that it will result in a better world, not the opposite.

HEADLINES:

• Biden announces in Tampa more than $600 million for Milton recovery (CBS)

• What we know about Vem Miller, charged with gun possession near Trump rally (USA Today)

• China ends war games around Taiwan, but leaves door open to more (Reuters)

• Experts warn ‘crazy busy’ Atlantic hurricane season is far from over (AP)

• Voters’ feelings about the 2024 campaign and election outcomes; concerns about political violence (Pew)

• Kamala Harris’s Hundred-Day Campaign (New Yorker)

• Kamala Harris says this lesson from her mom shaped her career—why parenting experts say it’s essential for success (CNBC)

• Honorable public servants of both parties upheld democracy after the 2020 election. America is counting on them again to do their duty. (NYT)

• UN says Israeli tanks ‘forcibly entered’ base of its peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Independent)

• Captured documents reveal Hamas’s broader ambition to wreak havoc on Israel (WP)

• 'Dead heat': Trump pulls even with Harris in NBC News poll (NBC)

• Canada has long had one of the world’s most open immigration policies. Now, faced with a growing popular backlash, it’s changing the rules. (NYT)

• The trouble with Elon Musk’s robotaxi dream (Economist)

• Apple Has a New Smart Home Strategy: Screens Everywhere (Bloomberg)

• Can We Please Just Find the Aliens Already? (NYT)

• Meta’s Yann LeCun says worries about A.I.’s existential threat are ‘complete B.S.’ (TechCrunch)

• This threat hunter chases U.S. foes exploiting AI to sway the election (WP)

• Nation’s Indigenous People Confirm They Don’t Need Special Holiday, Just Large Swaths Of Land Returned Immediately (The Onion)