Should have the same argument

From Hieber on linguistics,

How to use a dictionary:
❌ “What’s the One True Meaning™ of this word?”
❌ “What’s the One True Pronunciation™ of this word?”
✅ “What are some different ways this word is used?”

= = = = =

Prescriptive vs Descriptive is a VERY old argument in language, and it was fully settled a long time ago. Descriptive won. Every dictionary since 1950 is Descriptive, telling you who uses this form and what they mean when they use it. Schoolteachers didn’t get the message and continued running the grotesque Prescriptive crap for many years.

This made me think… Other disciplines SHOULD have the same argument but they don’t. In every technical realm from math to electronics to auto mechanics to programming to economics, we learn strict mathematical functions and precise ISO standards. Teachers and textbooks start with the standards and end with the standards. We learn Ohms Law but we don’t learn who uses this form and what they mean when they use it. (The law has an entirely different flavor when the R or the V is in control.) We learn the Carnot Cycle but we don’t learn why the complexity of a four-stroke engine is needed. We learn AND, OR, IF, WHILE, but we don’t learn how to reduce real life to logical constructions without losing what makes it real.