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It can't be any worse than people who misuse the hammer and anvil metaphor.

Many say "You are the anvil, and I am the hammer" to imply superiority of the hammer bashing down on the poor anvil. However in reality, the hammer always breaks and the anvil always maintains.

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Ah! I have another example like that. Sometimes people use the term 'quantum leap' to describe some huge change. As it turns out, a quantum leap is a very small change in the state of an electron, a very tiny event, nothing to write home about.

The point about a quantum leap is that it is discrete, rather than continuous, so, for example, a "quantum leap in understanding" implies a progress in understanding that cannot be broken down into a progression of small increments of understanding.

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