Softening toward jargon and certain uses of language

Thanks to John McWhorter:

Almost all of that stuff [the rules of English] are things that somebody made up — usually about 250 years ago — because they didn’t know as much about language as we do now, and they had a notion that all languages should work like Latin. And that is so hard to accept, in a way, because we are proud that we learned all those rules. And, it’s a way of feeling like you are wearing the right clothes. It’s a way of feeling like you are intelligent. You know? Most of that stuff was just made up.

From http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/08/john_mcwhorter.html

The interview caused me to decide to focus more on whether I understand others than whether I like the way they’re using particular words.