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Robert Plamondon responded to my definition of heuristics as "something like
working through the steps of a computer algorithm" by noting: <<In other
words, rules of thumb.>>
Each heuristic is a rule of thumb. The _evaluation_ part just means that you
check the documentation against each of these rules of thumb in some kind of
systematic way. It's the systematic part that's important.
<<If you look up the word in a real dictionary, you'll see that the original
connotation is exactly the opposite of this. Heuristic learning is when you
gain from your own investigations, not from those of others.>>
I used the Web results because they were closer at hand than my tech
dictionary; if the definition hadn't matched my understanding, I wouldn't
have presented it.
Don't forget the difference between denotation (what the dictionary says)
and connotation (how a word is actually being used). To understand the
latter, you have to pick a dictionary that understands the context in which
you're using a word; you and I, for example, undoubtedly have a very
different definition of PC than people in the humanities ("political
correctness"). The McGraw-Hill dictionary of science and technology (a
"real" dictionary) defines heuristics as a method of trying different
approaches to see which one works best. It's easy to see why the people who
discuss and design heuristic evaluations have co-opted the word for their
own purposes: their evaluation procedures nominally reflect the results of
this experimentation (trial and error) and thereby skip the "trying
different approaches part". Whether they succeed is another matter entirely.
<<To me, the basic connotation of the word, as generally used, is that the
writer is the sort of person who calls a spade an "implement.">>
Don't forget, there are two types of jargon: The bad type used to obscure
meaning or sound sophisticated, and the good type, which is intended to
convey agreed-upon meanings accurately. A "rule of thumb" doesn't convey the
abovementioned nuances to me. You could certainly use "rule of thumb" as
shorthand, but among people who know what they're talking about* when they
say "heuristic" (a specific "discourse community"), the word conveys
important meanings.
* Just to be clear: Not an implication that you're not one of these people.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous
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