I was recently having a debate with a family member, and I asked them to define some of the terms: “modern”, “normal” that were central to the debate.
Their struggle to clearly define these words took them by surprise.
I would argue that much of our misunderstandings are due to using vaguely undefined words. If we don’t define words, what exactly it that we are communicating? We are speaking with emotions, and the message doesn’t land.
A quick search online, and often the words we find in online dictionaries are very simplistic, and even include the words themselves.
And when we are going deeper with AI, if we are using words that are the average of others, the output becomes more average and less clear.
I have thousands of hours of experience defining words. The journey of learning Chinese is the process of defining words, matching words between languages, and trying them out for size. It’s a great exercise, that I recently turned back onto my own native language – I recently spent a full day just defining some key English words related to my business and goals. e.
It’s surprisingly challenging – and can take several minutes to mentally think through all the uses of certain words to see I would define it, and often impossible without looking at other resources. I surprised myself by often coming up with quite different definitions to “official defintions”. This reflects my preference of using “useful” definitions, and also worldview.
It not only allowed me to understand words better, but how they fit together, and it was a process of uncovering the nature of reality itself. Organising and reconstructing my reality by first principles. It gave me a deep sense of clarity, peace, and that, after spending hours defining what words mean, I no longer need to communicate so much. The words match means exactly what I mean.
One example:
It seems like a “simple” word to understand, but as I’ll explain, The above definitions are “bad” definitions for a few reasons.
I would define simplicity as:
Simplicity – the state where the unessential has been removed so that an entity can better perform its purpose. Simplicity is therefore about defining what its purpose is and what is essential and not essential.
To define a word clearly, we need to:
1) Draw boundaries about what is and what isn’t this word.
2) A definition should never use a comparative word such as easy, uncomplicated, without explaining what it is compared to, otherwise it is a loop. We need to anchor the concept to the object itself (its purpose and essentials) rather than the observer’s feeling.
3) Be action or process oriented rather than passive. Passive definitions lead to passive thinking. If simplicity is just a “quality,” you wait for it to happen. If simplicity is “removing the unessential,” it becomes a tool and process you can wield.
4) It’s also necessary to understand all the related words. You cannot understand “Simplicity” without understanding “Complexity,” “Essentialism,” and “Chaos.” and also purpose.
Based on the above, the definition above is overly “simplistic” and surface based, rather than understanding the nature of the concept. My definition of simplicity is superior because it teaches you something about the nature of the word and the concept itself.
Here are four specific changes I learnt to help sharpen communication and thought:
1) Comparative words – Include What They Are Being Compared to Or Cut these out entirely
“Bad, good, big, small, difficulty, better, worse, expensive”.
Any word that you can say: “Compared to what?”
”Modern, normal, and well-respected” are also evaluator words.
They are are relative to something that is usually not stated.
If they are being used, then it’s essential to include what they are compared to.
Realise that when they are used without referring to what they are being compared to, they often actually say more about the communicator than the object.
Avoiding these forces clarity.
2) Primitive Words – Define these clearly
“Time, pain, resource, goal”
These can have vague meanings.
These are the building blocks of reality.
Defining them gives you clarity.
All of these words need to have clear boundaries.
What is and what is not this word.
3) Compound / Composite words – Understand These
“Hardship, disaster, justice, hurrying, working, beautiful”
These are the majority of our words, and understanding these is more about putting together the building blocks of our reality and their relations with each other.
It’s almost like studying Physics.
For “hardship” now you’ve got to define “pain”, and how hardships relates to this.
You have a deeper understanding of what this actually means.
Without understanding primitive words such as pain or evaluator words, we can’t fully understand these words.
4) Amorphous words – fill these with what they mean to you
“Success, happy, love”. Realise that these are empty containers. If you don’t fill them with your own specific definitions (using primitive words), society will fill them for you – usually with things you don’t really want. These are vague words that mean different things to different people, that can lead to lazy and unclear thinking – if we don’t define them our communication and language deteriorates.
Defining words becomes even more important as we increasingly use AI for analysis. If we don’t define words, then our terms resort to the average, a mixture of different definitions, and our thinking becomes sloppy, rather resorting to emotional dialogue.
Here are some words I’ve defined recently that are different to online, official definitions, and how most people define it.
And hopefully this article will have given the benefits of clearly defining words and confidence to define them for yourself and challenge others.
______________________________________
Some of My Definitions
Pain – The subjective interpretation of a biological signal indicating that a threshold has been crossed, limit has been reached, or boundary has been breached.
Distraction – any stimulus or activity that takes you further away from your goals.
Focus – the act of putting something into your field of view at the exclusion of everything else.
Relationship – the consistent and mutually agreed upon exchange of value between two people or entities by clearly defined behavioural standards and boundaries.
Leader – a person who sets a mutually advantageous vision and persuades and aligns the interests of others to achieve that vision, continually, until it is realised.
Trust – the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, and integrity of a person, entity, or object and the willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party because you expect that they will perform a particular action important to you, without the need to monitor or control them.
Purpose – The fundamental reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists.
Clarity – The quality of being coherent, intelligible, and free from ambiguity.
Simplicity – the state where the unessential has been removed so that an entity can better perform its purpose.
Elegant – simple in an attractive, refined or sophisticated way.
Refined – removing the non-essential parts, or carrying out some specific process, to make it more elegant.
Authentic- The state of alignment where internal beliefs, external words, and visible actions are identical.
Vulnerability – The intentional lowering of defenses (armour) at risk of pain or loss to increase the chance of some benefit (often connection).
Engagement – The connection between two entities where attention and energy are successfully transferred.
Boredom – The painful psychological state of low arousal and lack of external stimulation, due to excess potential, or lack of meaning, which forces the brain to seek new goals or activity.
