Research request: word search
Dear Colleagues, The Danish designer and author Per Mollerup wrote me a query. He seeks a word for a specific concept to describe situations when more of something yields a worse result than fewer. One example he gives is when you water a plant just enough, it helps the plant, while giving it too much water kills it. Standards are another case in point. If you have one standard for an entire field, you are standardized. If you have twenty standards in the same field, you are less standardized.. Per also gives the example of romance. If you have one romance, it is romantic. If you have one hundred romances going on at the same time, it won't be romantic at all. IF YOU EMPHASIZE EVERY WORD ON THE PAGE, NOTHING IS EMPHASIZED. He suggests naming these phenomena with a neologism, "more-is-lessuals." I have the sense that a word may already exist to cover such cases, but I can't recall it. If anyone knows of such a word, I will welcome a note at <ken.friedman@bi.no> Thank you. -- Ken Friedman Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design Department of Leadership and Organization Norwegian School of Management Design Research Center Denmark's Design School +47 06600 Tlf NSM +47 67.55.73.23 Tlf Office +47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat email: ken.friedman@bi.no
superoptional / suboptimal Ken Friedman wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
The Danish designer and author Per Mollerup wrote me a query.
He seeks a word for a specific concept to describe situations when more of something yields a worse result than fewer.
One example he gives is when you water a plant just enough, it helps the plant, while giving it too much water kills it.
Standards are another case in point. If you have one standard for an entire field, you are standardized. If you have twenty standards in the same field, you are less standardized..
Per also gives the example of romance. If you have one romance, it is romantic. If you have one hundred romances going on at the same time, it won't be romantic at all.
IF YOU EMPHASIZE EVERY WORD ON THE PAGE, NOTHING IS EMPHASIZED.
He suggests naming these phenomena with a neologism,
"more-is-lessuals."
I have the sense that a word may already exist to cover such cases, but I can't recall it.
If anyone knows of such a word, I will welcome a note at
<ken.friedman@bi.no>
Thank you.
-- Charlie Hendricksen, PhD Research Collaboration Architect "Information technology structures human relationships." "Meaning arises from parsimonious redescription." Dissertation link: http://depts.washington.edu/bkn/public/pubs/diss.html DocReview link: http://purl.oclc.org/DocReview/get
superoptimal / suboptimal Charles Hendricksen wrote:
superoptional / suboptimal
Ken Friedman wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
The Danish designer and author Per Mollerup wrote me a query.
He seeks a word for a specific concept to describe situations when more of something yields a worse result than fewer.
One example he gives is when you water a plant just enough, it helps the plant, while giving it too much water kills it.
Standards are another case in point. If you have one standard for an entire field, you are standardized. If you have twenty standards in the same field, you are less standardized..
Per also gives the example of romance. If you have one romance, it is romantic. If you have one hundred romances going on at the same time, it won't be romantic at all.
IF YOU EMPHASIZE EVERY WORD ON THE PAGE, NOTHING IS EMPHASIZED.
He suggests naming these phenomena with a neologism,
"more-is-lessuals."
I have the sense that a word may already exist to cover such cases, but I can't recall it.
If anyone knows of such a word, I will welcome a note at
<ken.friedman@bi.no>
Thank you.
-- Charlie Hendricksen, PhD Research Collaboration Architect "Information technology structures human relationships." "Meaning arises from parsimonious redescription." Dissertation link: http://depts.washington.edu/bkn/public/pubs/diss.html DocReview link: http://purl.oclc.org/DocReview/get
surfeit ? 1 : an overabundant supply : EXCESS 2 : an intemperate or immoderate indulgence in something (as food or drink) 3 : disgust caused by excess Quoting Charles Hendricksen <veritas@u.washington.edu>:
superoptional / suboptimal
Ken Friedman wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
The Danish designer and author Per Mollerup wrote me a query.
He seeks a word for a specific concept to describe situations when more of something yields a worse result than fewer.
One example he gives is when you water a plant just enough, it helps the plant, while giving it too much water kills it.
Standards are another case in point. If you have one standard for an entire field, you are standardized. If you have twenty standards in the same field, you are less standardized..
Per also gives the example of romance. If you have one romance, it is romantic. If you have one hundred romances going on at the same time, it won't be romantic at all.
IF YOU EMPHASIZE EVERY WORD ON THE PAGE, NOTHING IS EMPHASIZED.
He suggests naming these phenomena with a neologism,
"more-is-lessuals."
I have the sense that a word may already exist to cover such cases, but I can't recall it.
If anyone knows of such a word, I will welcome a note at
<ken.friedman@bi.no>
Thank you.
-- Charlie Hendricksen, PhD Research Collaboration Architect
"Information technology structures human relationships." "Meaning arises from parsimonious redescription."
Dissertation link: http://depts.washington.edu/bkn/public/pubs/diss.html DocReview link: http://purl.oclc.org/DocReview/get _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Karen Lunsford, Assistant Professor of Writing Mailing address: Writing Program, South Hall 1520 University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3010 klunsford@writing.ucsb.edu 805-893-8556
"overkill"? Charles Hendricksen wrote:
superoptional / suboptimal
Ken Friedman wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
The Danish designer and author Per Mollerup wrote me a query.
He seeks a word for a specific concept to describe situations when more of something yields a worse result than fewer.
One example he gives is when you water a plant just enough, it helps the plant, while giving it too much water kills it.
Standards are another case in point. If you have one standard for an entire field, you are standardized. If you have twenty standards in the same field, you are less standardized..
Per also gives the example of romance. If you have one romance, it is romantic. If you have one hundred romances going on at the same time, it won't be romantic at all.
IF YOU EMPHASIZE EVERY WORD ON THE PAGE, NOTHING IS EMPHASIZED.
He suggests naming these phenomena with a neologism,
"more-is-lessuals."
I have the sense that a word may already exist to cover such cases, but I can't recall it.
If anyone knows of such a word, I will welcome a note at
<ken.friedman@bi.no>
Thank you.
Point of diminishing returns. There is an example in: Aldersey-Williams (1996). Interactivity with a human face. Technology review. 99(2).
In economics, I believe this is referred to as "pushing on a string" - where pushing on one end of a string doesn't necessarily result in the other end moving forward. Nanu Iyer wrote:
Point of diminishing returns.
There is an example in:
Aldersey-Williams (1996). Interactivity with a human face. Technology review. 99(2). _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
------ Michael T. Zimmer Doctoral Candidate, Media Ecology Department of Culture and Communication New York University webpage: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~mtz206/ weblog: http://michaelzimmer.blogspot.com/
participants (6)
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Charles Hendricksen -
Karen Lunsford -
Ken Friedman -
Michael Zimmer -
Nanu Iyer -
Paula