SubscribeThat’s a nice CPU you’ve got there
It's not a pretty thing when non-technical people try to use technical terms. I understand that they think that using these mysterious words they hear will make communication easier. In reality it doesn't do anything but confuse us.
The title of this post is the phrase for discussion. A coworker walks into the IT office area and points towards a workstation which we use for running long batch jobs. It's a workhorse that we happen to have decorated with a side window and neon lights. I can only hope that he was so awestruck by the beauty of the light that he said the wrong thing. In reality he's just confused and was trying to sound cool so that he could try to engage us socially. "CPU" sounds way cooler than "computer", right? Someone should really tell him that technical people tend to be introverted.
Here I am looking to learn more about “nice” CPU processes, and you go and use a technical term like “nice” to describe a computer?
Technical people complaining about non-technical people trying to use technical terms should be careful about using ambiguous terms that have technical meanings.
Maybe your coworker really was admiring the CPU?
haha! I also found this post while trying to look up info about “nice” CPU usage. That phrase is a double trap! Though I also agree that it makes the original speaker look like a dumbass trying to sound hip. But that’s pretty typical.
Take your basic tech-ish company that, say, writes software that generates some product, like paper plates. The geeks writing the software know they’re at an average company that uses average everyday equipment to create and sell paper plates… instead of using killer awesome equipment to launch rockets or cure AIDS or something. So there’s a pile of boring computers lying around, but who cares? Decorating them with lights and stuff is kind of an inside joke: we make it look like a big deal, but we know it’s not.
But the suit wearing MBAs who market and sell the paper plates, well they used to work at a company that made paper plates by HAND, and now they work at a hip new company that uses computers! With CPUs and NICs and PRAM and all those other cool words that probably mean something. Working those words into conversation is the only way to feel connected to this cool new world. Oh wait, there’s one more way actually… the suits tend to have lots of money, so they can buy all the latest gadgets and whizmos, giving them even more things to talk incorrectly about, pissing off the poor geeks even more.
Cause the thing about your basic geek is that he tends to have more knowledge than money. Thus knowledge is his primary asset, thus the feeling of disgust to hear some guy basically making a mockery of this asset.
anyway, why am I writing this? back to my search for more knowledge…