Joel Fariss
Joel Fariss
01: Language & Words
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01: Language & Words

Obfuscation and the Survival Instinct of Specialists

“We still say the words ‘sunrise’ and ‘sunset,’ even though we have known for hundreds of years that the earth revolves around the sun!”

–Buckminster Fuller on why he uses the words ‘sunsight’ and ‘sunclipse.’


Welcome to the inaugural episode of my personal audio journal. This is not a podcast in the traditional sense – it is a documented and searchable record of conversations that I find interesting and would like to reference in the future.

In this conversation, I speak with my good friend Josh Vitulli about the obfuscation of information through specialty language, jargon, and insular disciplinary echo chambers. We unpack how language, both in its specificity and accessibility, is key to the kind of holistic education we need to make sense of complexity and make decisions in our world today. I am looking forward to expanding on some of these themes in the future, exploring subjects such as epistemology and semiotics.

Let me know what you think!


Mentions –

Talk: Emergence by Daniel Schmachtenberger

Book: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller

Artist: Helma af Klint

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