This seems extremely pedantic. "Use case" as it's used today basically just means "case" or "situation" for a particular project or task or goal (edit: and for a particular individual/group/entity/organization). It's not business jargon or a buzzword term, even if perhaps it started off that way many decades ago.
I can think of countless annoying corporate buzzwords I see all the time on HN or at my job which are totally opaque and useless. "Use case" is two simple English words which anyone, including non-tech people, uses and clearly understands. This is not the hill to die on. I could link so many comments posted in the last week which are infinitely more buzzword-laden and irritating. If you really feel the dire necessity to chastise them, at least pick one of of those.
I do partly agree with you on "moving forward" or "going forward". I'm skeptical the situation was nearly as ambiguous as you suggest (it means "in the future", which is ambiguous, but it's no more ambiguous than saying "in the future", and anyone can easily request clarification if they hear "in the future"), but I had a few managers who said and wrote that like 30 times per day, and it does start to get on your nerves. Perhaps "use case" is similarly overused by some, but it also has a specific and clear meaning which would take longer to say/write than just using the term.
> "Use case" is two simple English words which anyone, including non-tech people, uses and clearly understands
Source?
Where I am "use case" is definitely [still] tech jargon. I know very very few non-tech people who've ever heard it used, much less could give a definition for it.
> This seems extremely pedantic. "Use case" as it's used today basically just means "case" or "situation" for a particular project or task or goal. It's not business jargon or a buzzword term, even if perhaps it started off that way many decades ago.
Notice that you are already in contradiction with the first criticism that I received in this thread, where a subtle difference in meaning was proposed.
> it means "in the future", which is ambiguous, but it's no more ambiguous than saying "in the future",
The main point is that it is totally unnecessary, we already have the future tense to talk about what will happen in the future.
The same applies here. Remove the phrase with "use case" and you get exactly the same meaning, with less words and less cringe.
I see your point, but I think it's only redundant if the context of the use case(s) has already been established, in which case you can just refer to the thing itself (directly, or with demonstrative words). If anything, I think the much more redundant and cringey part is the "personal" in "my personal use case". "My use case" sounds fine to me.
"My use case" just generalizes "my {project, job, task, case}(s)". It's not ambiguous, because the intention is to be general. "For me" is a bit more general than that, though, and sometimes you want to be a little more specific.
The specificity hierarchy / subtle difference in meaning goes from "for me" (my attributes) -> "my use case" (my attributes + the case's attributes) -> "my [job/project/whatever]" -> "my [exact thing I'm specifically doing]". I think all can be valid, depending on the context. I maybe should've said "'case' or 'situation' for a particular project or task or goal done by a particular person (or group or organization)" instead (I was implying the latter part), but there's no contradiction here. By contrast, "moving forward" is typically implied and unnecessary no matter the context and can usually be cut as dead weight.
I can think of countless annoying corporate buzzwords I see all the time on HN or at my job which are totally opaque and useless. "Use case" is two simple English words which anyone, including non-tech people, uses and clearly understands. This is not the hill to die on. I could link so many comments posted in the last week which are infinitely more buzzword-laden and irritating. If you really feel the dire necessity to chastise them, at least pick one of of those.
I do partly agree with you on "moving forward" or "going forward". I'm skeptical the situation was nearly as ambiguous as you suggest (it means "in the future", which is ambiguous, but it's no more ambiguous than saying "in the future", and anyone can easily request clarification if they hear "in the future"), but I had a few managers who said and wrote that like 30 times per day, and it does start to get on your nerves. Perhaps "use case" is similarly overused by some, but it also has a specific and clear meaning which would take longer to say/write than just using the term.