2013-07-30

Idiom Watch


  • Heroic assumptions - This one I hear a lot from people who are skeptical of the ability to draw actionable conclusions from statistical analysis: your black swan theorists, your big data naysayers, your typical principled cynics with a sense of humor. They admire the heroism of the hard work and intellectual acumen demonstrated in attempts to elevate soft science to exact science, but recognize that the most significant findings require some assumptive leaps. It's a smirking form of appreciation because they still don't quite buy it, "But keep it up there, champ!"
  • Tuck into - I'm going to stop apologizing for all the food idioms. This one is probably inoffensive to me (unlike other gustatory sayings) because of it's foreign roots (tuck shops, etc). You hear it in the States, but as often as not in the context of a beef stew or a shepherd's pie, and latent Anglophilia of my American nerd upbringing takes over. I say tuck away.