I once read about an interesting, invented word: "obsoledge".

Obsoledge means "obsolete knowledge". Meaning, information that USED to be true... But because of our rapidly changing world, is no longer true. And when we do not realize that, then we get trouble - making choices based on assumptions that WERE valid once, but are not valid NOW.

Now, obsoledge is an interesting word. But it's even more interesting when we look at the "meta" level.

Because once upon a time, that word did not exist. Someone coined it, because it is a useful idea.

I wrote about "obsoledge" in my email newsletter once, and got this upset email from an un-subscriber:

"When I saw "confirm your subscription to learn the one secret word," I became concerned this site was a fake. I checked and found that they seemed to be reputable, so I decided to proceed. Finding out that the "word" was "obsoledge" (not a word) was quite a let-down." Click here

This expresses one view of reality:

That the words in a language are already defined. That new words are added to a language rarely, if at all.

Someone can have a successful life with that way of thinking. It works. Over 90% of all humans think this way in their day to day lives.

I have noticed, though, that some of the highest performers in programming have a different mental model:

"Words are labels for concepts. New concepts can be created. And we can create new words to give our mind a better handle on them."

Which one is more "correct"?

Who knows. A much better question: