Ask HN: Monoculture and speech patterns | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Monoculture and speech patterns

5 pointspartisan9 comments

Ever since my first encounter with low hanging fruit, it's been clear to me that there is a certain way that people speak that they use to signal that they are part of the monoculture:

- Using verbs as nouns (ask, spend)

- Referring to the "story" of things (they have a good color story)

- Using 'sort of' and 'kind of' to avoid ownership of firm ideas while still speaking with some level of authority (We see this sort of trend)

- Using British terms (flat, tube, naff). Naff, in particular, is catching on really well now

- Vocal fry and a flat affect or sing-song cadence

So:

- do you agree that there is such a trend?

- do you participate?

- is it necessary to participate to work at startups?

- what is your perception of people who don't participate?

Thanks!

View on HN

When sailors refer to a rope as a line, are they also signaling that they're part of a monoculture? Or do they just need more specific terms than regular English (there are several words for various kinds of ropes: sheet, hawser, painter, ...).

It seems natural for professions to develop some specialized language. It's obviously a liability to not understand it, because you won't know what people mean. But it's not much of a liability not to use it if there is an equally precise non-jargon term.

It's probably more about signaling subordination in a dominance hierarchy than practicality.

Last time I worked in a software company was 13 years ago, and I still remember what the OP is writing about. It was absolutely cringe-worthy!

Yes. Particularly important is gesticulation, if you don't gesticulate at exactly the right silicon valley cadence you may as well not even be talking.

It's interesting that you assume the OP was talking about Silicon Valley. Many people assume that HN is centered in SV, but HN became an international community years ago. The vast majority of community members aren't headquartered in SV and don't identify with it or even particularly like it.

The term monoculture is an oxymoron, since if it existed we'd all share it.

I think it's a hypothetical, not an oxymoron. A monoculture could exist, but if it did, you'd just call it "culture," which maybe is what you're getting at: The moment it is realized, the qualifier is redundant. I don't know if an English word for such a thing exists.

I would argue that monocultures exist because of it's relation to other existing cultures. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoculturalism

That said, you are right and monoculturalism is not the right term. It is a political term at best and a charged cultural term in today's racial and cultural environment. It's too late to change the title. Sadly, the rest of my post doesn't mention the term, but the responses don't seem to address anything but the title.

monoculture?

Yea, I was wondering the same thing. Best I can figure it out from context and google is that there is a silicon valley monoculture and the OP is pointing out that in addition to similar ideas they have similar speech patterns

Reply on news.ycombinator.com