It seems that a lot of people are using the word “stick-to-it-iveness”. There’s even a page for potential authors that lists “stick-to-it-iveness” as a critical trait.

As this excellent rant points out, people seem to ignore that we already have a word for that: tenacity.

Even sadder: Google reports 995 hits for sticktoitiveness, 2810 for stick-to-it-iveness, and more with various other spellings. Argh.

I am a person that is easily fascinated. I find the might of a massive steam locomotive almost a century old to be fascinating, and I think that the nanoscale engines now in development are fascinating as well. Programming languages, philosophy, music, other sciences — all are interesting.

But there’s something more fascinating: people. Sometimes they’re annoying (such as anyone on the Jerry Springer show; I’ve failed to grasp the fascination there for years). Sometimes they’re mysterious. Let’s see where this little observation can lead…
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