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Improving on Fuzzy Language

What a bizarre process it is to buy a car! The other day I was at a typical dealer's overcrowded lot. The cars were parked closer together than they are in a Portland OR grocery store parking lot.

The salesman was a big guy. He would open "my" van's door smack into the adjacent vehicle, actually dinging a newish vehicle. He didn't seem concerned. That really shows the high regard they have for their product, doesn't it?!

I suppose I should grateful for the search engines, such as AutoTrader, Car Gurus, Auto Tempest, etc. But they suck!

They over-describe unimportant things like the car having a clock, sun visor, intermittent windshield wipers, 16 air bags, etc. Oh, and it has "a CD player," too.

But as for the engine, they will just say, "V8". Apparently it doesn't matter that GM made three different V8 engines for the years in question.

The poor customer's time is wasted on jargon, abbreviations, the reckless use of pronouns, undefined nomenclature, etc. Why can't these vaunted search engines pop up a little balloon of explanation when you click on an unclear term? 

Sometimes you just can't get the idea across with ambiguities and flowery adjectives!

Now for the good news: the vagueness of language is  removed by GM's sticker of "RPO" (Regular Production Options) codes. It is stuck on the door jamb of the passenger door. (In the glove compartment in the old days.) 


Yes, it looks complex, but the codes are in alphanumeric order. 

So how do you interpret them? Do a google search of "list of GM RPO codes." Near the top of the search results you will find:

RPO Codes and Descriptions. Code. Description. AAB. MEMORY DRIVER ... VEHICLE GM PROD WEEK 11. BZ3. VEHICLE GM PROD WEEK 12. BZ4.
Click on this and it will download a pdf file, which will then live happily on your phone or computer.

Just think back to the days of the Middle Ages, when intelligent men argued endlessly over philosophical issues, using only verbiage. They never reached a conclusion.

A couple centuries later mathematics entered the world of natural philosophy and a miracle happened.

The car industry is still wallowing in medieval verbiage, but now these RPO codes are the first step in making the industry rational. And yet, most customers don't know about them, "expert" car reviewers don't blog or vlog about them, and the  salespeople don't even know about them. And don't expect the expensive glitzy car commercials during the Super Bowl to mention them!

How could such a situation exist?  
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I probably lost readers in the first two paragraphs if they weren't in the market for a car. But the crisis in language really stings when you are out shopping for a car; so it makes a great illustration of something larger. 

Think of how much time humans spend on internet searches. You can only use your time efficiently if there is discipline in the use of language. You'd think that sloppy speakers would be under a lot of social pressure. But I think speech is getting worse rather than better.

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