Verbatim quote · defining passage

“And dedicating oneself to setting relatively immobilized “pieces” of language back into motion seems a good way of thinking about operating within an idiom. You will always be mistaken in doing so, precisely because you’ll be violating some convention or expectation, but you also can’t go wrong because you present a opportunity for an adjusted response on the part of others—it’s a more semiotic way of speaking about stopping and thinking before doing as itself a kind of doing. So, “idiomclining” instead of “critical thinking” or other bureaucratized categories designed for mass test taking.”

— Adam Katz, Idiomclining · Jan 01, 2026 · Bouvard Substack