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Tedium: Difference between revisions
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:''Words frequently change their meanings, and some even will go from meaning one thing to meaning something almost opposite (such as “nice”, which in its earliest use meant “lewd, wanton, dissolute”). [[Tedious]] is not one of these words; its meanings may have shifted over the centuries, but they have always had something to do with irksome, boring, or overlong things. The word comes from the Latin ''taedēre'', meaning “to disgust or weary.” Tedious has been in use since the 15th century and has been included in hundreds of dictionaries, although perhaps none have rendered so poetic and succinct a definition as Nathaniel Bailey’s entry in his 1756 New Universal Etymological English Dictionary: “Wearisome by continuance.”'' | :''Words frequently change their meanings, and some even will go from meaning one thing to meaning something almost opposite (such as “nice”, which in its earliest use meant “lewd, wanton, dissolute”). [[Tedious]] is not one of these words; its meanings may have shifted over the centuries, but they have always had something to do with irksome, boring, or overlong things. The word comes from the Latin ''taedēre'', meaning “to disgust or weary.” Tedious has been in use since the 15th century and has been included in hundreds of dictionaries, although perhaps none have rendered so poetic and succinct a definition as Nathaniel Bailey’s entry in his 1756 New Universal Etymological English Dictionary: “Wearisome by continuance.”'' | ||
===Tedium and interest=== | ===Tedium and interest=== | ||
I can’t prove this, but | I can’t prove this, but [[tedium]] is not the opposite of “interesting”. There is an intermediate purgatorial state which is not particularly [[interesting]] in any meaningful sense of the word, but is not especially tedious either. Bruce Springsteen’s album ''Nebraska'', for example. | ||
[[Tedium]] describes any activity which, when you stand back and look at it, serves no [[Substance|real purpose]], however ''[[form]]ally'' emollient it may feel. Given how utterly pervasive it is in modern corporate life, it is extraordinary no more research has been done into what tedium is and why we are obliged to endure it. | [[Tedium]] describes any activity which, when you stand back and look at it, serves no [[Substance|real purpose]], however ''[[form]]ally'' emollient it may feel. Given how utterly pervasive it is in modern corporate life, it is extraordinary no more research has been done into what tedium is and why we are obliged to endure it. | ||
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VARY YOUR TONE, FOR GOD’S SAKE. LEARN THE BASIC RUDIMENTS OF HOW TO ADDRESS A LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE. | VARY YOUR TONE, FOR GOD’S SAKE. LEARN THE BASIC RUDIMENTS OF HOW TO ADDRESS A LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE. | ||
''Speak'' to your [[ | ''Speak'' to your [[slide]]s: ''don’t just read the godforsaken things out''. | ||
===The [[third law of worker entropy]]=== | ===The [[third law of worker entropy]]=== | ||
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{{sa}} | {{sa}} | ||
*The [[JC]]’s [[laws of worker entropy]] | *The [[JC]]’s [[laws of worker entropy]] | ||
*The [[seven wastes of negotiation]] | *The [[seven wastes of negotiation]] | ||
{{c|entropy}} | {{c|entropy}} | ||
{{ref}} | {{ref}} | ||