When a journalist uses the term "inflection point" to describe growth

[swampwiz]

I was reading an article about Amazon's growth hitting an "inflection point" where basically the function changed from going more or less linearly (i.e., power = 1) to a more parabolic (i.e., power > 1). It seems to me that this term is being misused since an inflection point really describes the point at which a function changes its concavity from down to up (or vice-versa). Ironically, an inflection point is precisely when the function is going linear (i.e., has a curvature of 0).

 

[phinds]

I was reading an article about Amazon's growth hitting an "inflection point" where basically the function changed from going more or less linearly (i.e., power = 1) to a more parabolic (i.e., power > 1). It seems to me that this term is being misused since an inflection point really describes the point at which a function changes its concavity from down to up (or vice-versa). Ironically, an inflection point is precisely when the function is going linear (i.e., has a curvature of 0).

You are getting hung up on a technical term being used in a colloquial English language way. That happens a lot and railing against it is useless regardless of how frustrating it can be when you know the correct technical definition.

Here's one that says "business" but it's really used more widely than that.