An inflection point
Today’s expression is to be at an inflection point.
Think back to your days studying math in school—either late in high school or at your university, if you studied calculus. Think of a parabola. A parabola is like an arc. First it’s increasing at an increasing rate—this is taking me back!—then it’s increasing at a decreasing rate, then it turns and now the graph shows it falling again, it’s decreasing, and so on.
The graph looks like the peak of a rollercoaster. And that very top point on the graph is the inflection point. It’s when the line goes from increasing to decreasing.
We didn’t talk about calculus on today’s lesson, so you probably guessed that “inflection point” can be used in more general circumstances. And you would be right.
An inflection point is a time of significant change. It’s that point in time where you know the future is going to be different from the past. In mathematics, the inflection point is very precise. In business, or in life, the inflection point is fuzzier. It’s not quite as precise. But you use this when you know that big change is coming.
Today I said New York is at an inflection point . Before the pandemic, it welcomed a million suburban commuters into the city every day, and a whole economy depended on that. During the pandemic, everyone closed their eyes and pretended life would go back to normal someday. But now it’s clear that won’t happen. New York is at an inflection point. The future is going to be different from the past.
A lot of people are saying, these days , that universities are at an inflection point with ChatGPT. Prior to ChatGPT, if a student tried to write an essay using artificial intelligence, it would have been obvious—laughable, even. But now, ChatGPT can write realistic-sounding answers to questions. And it’s not inconceivable that students will use ChatGPT to write their essays.
Universities, then, are at an inflection point. What will they do about the use of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT? I don’t know—maybe we’ll talk about that in a future lesson. But I do think it’s right to say universities are at an inflection point. Whatever was true in the past about artificial intelligence and writing essays—that’s not going to be true in the future. This is a point at which there will have to be some big change.
The tough thing about this is, when you’re really at an inflection point, it’s not always obvious that you’re there. So one thing people do, when they want to get others to pay attention, is they say, in their most serious voice: “We are at an inflection point.” They do this to get you to pay attention.
Joe Biden: The world is at an inflection point. Jerome Powell, the head of America’s central bank: We’re at an inflection point with inflation. We’re at an inflection point in Ukraine. We’re at an inflection point with artificial intelligence. We’re at an inflection point with cryptocurrency.
I’m not saying none of these is true: I’m just saying be careful when you hear this. People say this to get you to pay attention. It makes the speaker sound smart, because it makes the speaker sound like he or she knows the future. But the truth is, when you’re really at an inflection point, it’s not always obvious that you’re there.
Quote of the Week
Time for a quote of the week; it’s about New York City. It’s by Le Corbusier, a Swiss architect. He said this: “A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.”
See you next time!
Speaking of studying math and inflection points, did you ever have a graphing calculator? Texas Instruments. It was called a TI-84. And you’d type formulas into it and it would graph the formulas. Do they still have those? I have no idea.
Anyway, that’s all for today’s Plain English, lesson number 558 for Monday, March 27, 2023. The full lesson, including exercises, a transcript, a how-to video, and much more are available at PlainEnglish.com/558.
On Thursday, we’ll talk about one of the challenges to re-making a city’s downtown in the post-pandemic world: Converting old offices into apartments. It’s not as easy as you might think. That’s coming up on Thursday. See you then.
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