“You’re such a pedant” goes the insult as though being right about something is somehow wrong.
Now don’t get me wrong – there are some areas where being a pedant is not entirely right – such as declaring that Christmas Day isn’t a bank holiday but instead a common-law holiday. But there are many areas where being pedantic and precise is not just the right thing, it is essential.
I work in IT, and many of the biggest problems in IT are down to lack of precision and not getting things right. I can’t recall the number of times things have gone wrong or have been delayed (probably the most common result) because things have not been specified clearly enough, with enough detail, and correctly.
So in certain specialised areas – such as IT – it is good to be pedantic and precise. Include too much information rather than too little.
