Thread by @NickMilo

No, "Progressive Summarization" the ACTIVITY, mustn't die.

Yes, "Progressive Summarization" the TERM, must die...so it can be renamed more accurately to:

"Just in Time" Summarization. ⌚️

🧵32 Insights on the Effects of Linguistic Interference 👇

Terms below 👇

📡Linguistic Interference 13/
📈Concept Expansion 10/
📜The Allegory of the Progressive Eaters 5/

Bring your thinking cap 👲

📡Linguistic Interference: The effect when concepts that are similarly named get mistaken as the same thing. For example:

Confusing "progressive summarization" with regular "summarizing". 1/32

📡Linguistic Interference is a version of Retroactive Interference.

For example, you might accidentally call an "evergreen note" an "evernote". 2/32

📡Linguistic Interference more dangerous than Retroactive Interference because the effect grows stronger over time due to the phenomenon of Concept Expansion.

The result: CONFUSION.

Let's explore.. 3/32

📡To be clear as possible:

| Copying | Condensing | Reducing | Extracting | Imitating | Rewriting |

These are activities that we use to process the "STUFF" we encounter.

This is called SUMMARIZING. 4/32

📡Summarizing is one of the great and invaluable abilities of the human mind.

Summarizing is an OG superpower. 5/32

📡Summarizing takes time. We don't summarize in a single micro-second. The very act of summarizing requires a progression over time.

That's probably why for thousands of years, there was no need to add "progressive" in front of "summarization". It was redundant. 6/32

📡For example, consider our memories. Research shows that when we remember something, we are actually remembering our memory of the memory—and not the memory itself.

And guess what that "memory of a memory" is? It's a progressive summarization of the original event. 7/32

📡In this very real sense, there's no way NOT to progressively summarize something over time.

We have been progressively summarizing for eons. But we just called it "summarizing".

Here's where the confusion starts 👇 8/32

📡But the unique and specific method of "Progressive Summarization" created by @fortelabs is very different. It follows the "Just in Time" project management principles like: "Don't waste time on processes or deliverables before it's truly necessary." 9/32

📡This "JIT-based" method is about choosing to defer engaging with "STUFF" now, so your Future You can engage with it at a later date—if it makes sense then. 10/32

📡This unique method has value. But the name "Progressive Summarization" is misleading.

It causes Linguistic Interference where people mistake regular summarizing with the distinct JIT-based method behind "Progressive Summarization." 11/32

📡That's why—deferred "Just-in-Time" Summarization—would a much more accurate and responsible description of the process. 12/32

📡But by titling this distinct method "Progressive Summarization", the author is (likely) unintentionally, co-opting the entirety of what people call "Summarizing".

This is Linguistic Interference. 📡
It opens the door to Concept Expansion. 📈 13/32

📈 CONCEPT EXPANSION: Take a word—any word—and just start using it in different ways. Each new instance expands our sense of the word.

(credit: Douglas R. Hofstadter) 14/32

📈 For example: Consider a friendly Shadow...

We know a shadow is the thing under the tree when the sun shines from above. That's a shadow.

But when that same tree blocks snow from hitting the ground, it's called a "snow shadow". 15/32

📈 But then when the Cascade Mountains block rain from moving East, we call the effect a "rain shadow".

Some of us live in the shadow of our parents.

And we are all living in the shadow being cast by Covid-19. 16/32

📈 So...What's a shadow again?

Suddenly instead of a tree casting a shadow on the ground, it's Covid casting a shadow on our lives.

That's Concept Expansion. 17/32

📈 This matters because some people might find a lot of value in Tiago's JIT-based summarization technique, but since it is called "Progressive Summarization" they will think they are already practicing it when they are not. 18/32

📈 Because of the titling confusion that has created Concept Expansion, these people will never get to experience this unique JIT-based Summarization technique.

Linguistic Interference cause confusion. Confusion allows for Concept Expansion. 19/32

📈 Open Question ❔

What is the usefulness of putting "Progressive" in front of any activity? How often is it redundant? 20/32

📈 Imagine all the activities you could put "Progressive" in front of...

"Progressive Tooth Brushing", "Progressive Sleeping", "Progressive Grocery Shopping."

How much meaning does it add? Not much, right? 21/32

📈 How about "Progressive Conversations"?

Let's define them as conversations that have different stages, and you may or may not get to all the stages.

Hmm, sounds like just a basic "conversation" to me. 22/32

📈 So "progressive" isn't usually a helpful descriptor.

Occam would say, "It's redundant."

Now let's see how Linguistic Interference allows for Concept Expansion in:

📜The Allegory of the Progressive Eaters 📜 23/32

📜 Have you heard of the new eating method called "Progressive Eating"? 👇 24/32

📜 It's where you take a bite of food, chew, swallow, and sometimes make a comment about the food—and you do it over the course of an unspecified amount of time. And you usually don't finish your plate. 25/32

📜 What if a bunch of people who liked the phrase started saying they too were "Progressively Eating"—even though most of them were just simply eating?

(Again, this becomes Linguistic Interference, which allows for Concept Expansion.) 26/32

📜 Imagine when, Joe, a life-long eater unfamiliar with the new term is told he is actually "progressively eating." 27/32

📜 Joe becomes confused. He says, "Progressive eating sounds an awful lot like eating, except you leave a lot of food behind." 28/32

⌛️The vague wording of "progressive" added to "summarization" has caused interference in our ability to talk to each other accurately about what activities we are actually doing! 29/32

⌛️That's why "Progressive Summarization" as a TERM, must die. It's causing confusion between regular summarizing and the distinct technique of "Just in Time" Summarization. 30/32

⌛️If more people understood the difference, more people could truly try the technique of "JIT Summarization". It would be more discoverable and reach more people. 31/32

⌛️Then more people could better determine the value of the "JIT Summarization"—not just in the short-term but over the years and decades that follow. 32/32 🔚