It’s four in the morning. You’ve spent the last 12 hours pacing back and forth a hospital waiting room. Despite your best efforts the ground is still somehow sticky underfoot. The noise that the soles of your shoes make as your feet lift off the floor sends a stiff, uncomfortable and sweaty feeling down the back of your neck. You feel exhausted but the stress moving through you vains keeps you awake, keeps you alert. You’re anxiously waiting for news, anything that could help you understand this confusing and concerning situation you find yourself in. And then you hear the slow tapping rhythm of feet making their way through the hospital corridor. Making their way towards your waiting room.
It’s a doctor and they tell you it’s not good. I’m afraid it’s your worst fear. ‘We’ve done some ECGs, and they have confirmed our worst fear. It’s a ST elevated MI. I’m afraid we’ve caught it a bit late, our best people are currently in the middle of PCI. Oh, look at the time. I really must be getting back. Goodbye.’
Jargon can be useful. It’s a way of packing a complex idea into a tight space giving you the scope to connect high level ideas together. The only trouble with jargon is that everybody involved needs to be “on the same page” as it were (aware of the meaning of the phrase, the concept that is being conveyed and perhaps even be aware of what it does not mean).
In the case of the introductory passage above, MI stands for “Myocardial infarction” or more simply heart attack.
What I’m finding in my efforts around learning the iOS platform is that there is a vast body of jargon, concepts and ideas that I don’t know. Or at least if I do know I don’t know in a formal way to help me help someone else to get the idea.
Enter my Jargon Buster
That is why I’ve decided that while I’m learning the iOS platform I intend on keeping a log of the jargon that I encounter. I’m going to try and keep this Jargon Busting sheet up to date and explain items in a ways that I understand these ideas and concepts. Hopefully my little project might be of some use to someone in the future.
Reference
Title Image
- The title image is a based on an image of a Russian Cypher Wheel. The original photograph was taken by Flickr user Paul Hudson.