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Comment by Daub | Hacker News Reader

> All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray.

I wholeheartedly agree that excessive and unnecessary verbiage can be a tiresome impediment to the clear transmission of ideas.

That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say. A wide vocabulary is particularly useful when addressing complex subjects.

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> That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say

And also the fewer people who can understand what you say.

> That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say.

Sure, you can say more things. That's great, if your goal is to talk a lot without caring if anyone else around you is listening to what you're saying.

Language should be task-appropriate. I teach computational aesthetics which would be impossible with the same bucket of words I use to go shopping for apples.

you're right of course. I should have been more clear.

building vocab is _awesome_ everyone who can, should do it. but learning when to use those fancy new words is _more_ important. Getting good source material is key to that.

See: this thread even.

I know this dude who can say anything you can think of using only two words.

No shit?

Hell yeah.

Is he German?

what ever

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