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Yes I agree, different words do hold different meanings, and less common words hold less specific meanings, and I love reading well crafted, elegant writing. I agree with your point. I guess I'm pouring out my hate on "fake crafted elegance". Like the one you mentioned: "using a thesaurus and agonizing over sentence structure" ONLY for the purpose of making it "sound" better. Not to make it sound truer to you, but to make it sound better to the ears.

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Thanks for the response! I hear what you're saying, and I apologize for my joke.

I re-read your essay, and what you say about needing sophistication reminds me of the concept of proof-of-work -- "sophistication" could be a way to convey that effort was spent by a writer, even if it doesn't add meaning. That is kind of inherently annoying, because it implies a lack of trust between the author and reader, and in the thesaurus example, the reader would be rightfully annoyed to spent time parsing a sentence only to find that the "proof of effort" was actually just a "facade of effort".

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