Is ambiguity in communication a side effect of creativity?

Previously, I had written about how Jargons are not very effective in the IT industry. You might need that context to understand what I will discuss here. I saw similar concerns shared by many professionals from the industry. For example, one post talked about how people use jazzy titles such as "AI scientist" while they work as a Data Engineer.

From my interactions with folks in the IT industry, there are two predominant reasons why people come to work in this industry.

1. The industry pays well.
2. They think they will do some creative work here, not repeating the same thing, which is boring.

Let us focus on the creative people. Obviously, they take pride in creating something new, and it keeps them motivated. Let's compare these people with those who write stories, novels, poems, etc. In these forms of literature, words don't just convey information. They create emotion. Hence, one needs to use several words that mean almost the same thing, without repeating the words, to create that emotion and keep the readers engaged. Unlike this, if you are writing a user guide or some documentation, you would repeatedly use the exact words to keep the content simple to understand.

We are dealing with two things here. One's nature (creativity) and the purpose (conveying information). A story writer using a variety of words will positively influence the outcome, which creates emotions among the readers. However, a technologist using several alternative words which mean the same thing might negatively influence the outcome by making it difficult to understand, as the audience may not have been exposed to a large vocabulary (or the words may not have a definite meaning like jargons).

Suppose we consider another highly creative profession - musicians. A listener does not need to identify every note of the song to experience and enjoy it.

From the above two examples, it is evident that creativity is good as long as it positively influences the outcome. If creativity negatively affects the outcome, then it is definitely a problem.

Rethinking what I wrote in the earlier post about jargons, I arrived at the following conclusion.

Any opportunity to give a name to a thing can possibly create an opportunity to promote ambiguity in communication. This may include coining new jargon, while a jargon already exists for the same purpose, or using a jargon that is inappropriate in the current context but looks fancy.

Having discussed creativity and comparing it to other creative fields, "Is ambiguity a side effect of creativity?" - my answer is a big NO.

A common practice in our industry is Resume Driven Development. Many software development professionals choose a particular programming language, framework, pattern, or practice because it would look great on their resume or by FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). They feel that if that one item is missing from their resume, they might not get an opportunity to work on the next big thing. This behaviour results in a professional doing something for personal gain at the cost of the team/ organisation's outcome.

Not enough understanding of the context is another primary reason for the ambiguity in communication. This includes a lack of understanding of the purpose of the team/ outcome the team is responsible for, a lack of understanding of the domain, etc.

Of course, nothing will improve if we don't put effort towards improving. This includes retrospecting both at the personal level and the team level, and working towards addressing the areas of improvements discovered/ agreed upon.