Small English nitpick:

> ff slow down video.mp4 by 2x

How do you slow something down by 2x? x is a multiplier. 2 is a number greater than 1. Multiplying by a number greater than 1 makes the result LARGER.

If you’re talking about “stretch movie duration to 2x”, say that instead.

Saying something is 2x smaller or 2x shorter or 2x cheaper doesn’t make sense. 2x what? What is the unit of “cheap” or “short” or “small”?

How much is “1 slow down”? How many “slow down” are in the movie where you want twice as many of them? Doesn’t make sense does it? So how can something be slowed by 2x? That also doesn’t make sense.

I know what is trying to be said. I know what is meant. Please just say it right. Things like throw us autistic people for a freaking loop, man. This really rustles our jimmies.

Language is for communicating. If we aren’t all on the same page about how to say stuff, you spend time typing and talking and writing and reading and your message doesn’t make it across the interpersonal language barrier.

I don’t want to see people wasting their time trying to communicate good ideas with bad phrasing. I want people to be able to say what they mean and move on.

I also don’t want to nitpick things like this, but I don’t want phrases like “slow down by 2x” to be considered normal English, either, because they aren’t.

Reminds me of a thing Steve Mould mentioned in a video about a claim in a book "The temperature outside an aeroplane is six times colder than the temperature inside a freezer."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C91gKuxutTU - Stand-up comedy routine about bad science

Isn’t it somewhat common to say something like “slow this down by a factor of 2”?