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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8653065" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I started climbing 2.75 years ago because (a) I have to shelf my basketball activities due to needing ankle reconstruction surgery so I'm hoping it will fill that niche I'm losing (its a huge thing for me losing something that has been so important to my life and well-being) and (b) hopes that it will help strengthen both of my shoulders so I can continue BJJ (which, along with a baseball career, ruined both of my rotator cuffs).I went in knowing absolute_nothing_about climbing.  Nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.There is a gigantically dizzying array of essential jargon for learning climbing, bettering your climbing, and engaging with the climbing community locally and at large.In two months time of straddling general-to-aggressive exposure (to the climbing itself, to the learning process, and the community), I'd uploaded nearly all of it so now my until-recently-climbing-derp-brain can think and perceive and talk like a functional climber.Two months time.  Within that time I went from looking at a wall as a complete and utter novice to looking at the wall through the lens of someone equipped to critically conceive obstacle dynamics and map a route and use all of that newly-gained jargon as a weapon to shorthand/hack the process of understanding what I'm doing + employing my understanding +getting better at both.  And the same goes for having functional conversations with climbers in the community.  There was a ton of "I don't understand what that means" and "no clue what you just said" in the beginning...but eventually I got there.I suffer horrific Insomnia (like Fight Club type "copy of a copy of a copy" insomnia).I'm in the throes of dealing with CTE because of dozens of major concussions in my life (including 3 blackouts).And there is other stuff that I won't go into.I am a seriously_diminished_person cognitively from where I was even 5 years ago (and well more than 10 years ago). Yet somehow, despite being extremely diminished + not a particularly smart person to begin with (I'm not even close to the outer tail of the intelligence distribution for humanity), I'm able to onboard complex jargon from a novice state within 2 months time and use that jargon/critical lens to serious advantage in both employing it physically and socially (which becomes a positive feedback loop between the two).  I'm sorry, I cannot get onboard with this "war against jargon" I keep seeing.  No.  I will not get on board...because its not true that it is all gatekeeping (or even approaching it) by narcissistic Ivory Tower Cabals hell bent on "keeping the casual done" or elevating themselves.  It can be very very useful toward skill-acquisition and x-hacks in whatever endeavor its oriented to.Sometimes...maybe more than sometimes...it helps humble...rather broken people hack their way to some level of proficiency in a thing (with aspirations toward more than proficiency).</blockquote>

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