# Naming things is Powerful * Naming things compresses context into a single entity so you can hold more in your head at once. [[Jargon is a mechanism for compressing information]] * Naming things allows you to quickly communicate a lot of context to people who also understand the the named thing * Naming things can make a thing more memorable * A well-named thing can be treated like a module in a system Before you name a thing you need to be able to [[Explain it like I’m Five]]. If you can’t then there is missing context and you’ll get ‘compression artifacts’ that make it hard to build off of the named thing both for you and others. Naming things is a way of structuring knowledge. [[Structuring knowledge is expensive]] if done well, so doing a good job of naming things is actually quite hard. On the other hand, using a named thing without actually understanding its context leads to [[Suitcase Handle Word]]. ### Examples [michael_nielsen on Twitter: “It’s amazing how much having a good name and place for something helps.(In this case: a particular type of idea I didn’t realize I had a lot of, until I named them and started to collect them. But the observation holds much more generally.)”](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1220878305018011648) https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1302263482826588160?s=20 ### Related <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Naming+things+is+Powerful) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Naming+things+is+Powerful)