Back on language? Yeah. But this one really did get me thinking. I was asked if I was going to sleep soon and I said something like "Yeah, I'm just winding up a few things." To my surprise I got the reply "Don't you mean 'wind down'".... and I'm not really sure what I said back as it's kinda interesting.
To me "wind up" is what I meant. To me it means finishing up, with the comparison being that you wind up clocks before you go to bed so they are still ticking in the morning. To me anyway... But I think the meaning of "wind up" is seen as building tension and thus not good for before bed, but, what even is "winding down"? To me it's just a deliberate reversal of tension ignoring the original meaning; why would you wind "down"? Wouldn't you just have some way to ease the spring in the design? You certainly can't turn a watch backwards and de-wind it....
To me it's purpose is more about people rather than tasks... but doing websearches it seems common to say "wind down a business", which makes no sense as to end a business you must do work to finish what you can and then sell off the business or assets.
So I'll be sticking with winding up things... while.... winding down.
