An employee who knows the policy has revolving door value, even if they didn't personally create it. You'd know better than I would how much of the USPTO's policy exists as law vs. published guidance vs. internal documents vs. shared habits that never actually get written down; but it often seems as if our lawyers act based on "policy" that's on the fuzzier end of that continuum. That's what's hardest to learn without hiring/being a former examiner.
Like, where do you learn to say "a plurality of" instead of "two or more"? "A first X" and "a second X"? When to express algorithms as flow charts? Those particular examples are well-known, but I presume there's a lot more culture/style like that. That seems as important to me as the formal policy, not necessarily anything substantive but a sign that you're in the club.
“not necessarily anything substantive but a sign that you're in the club.”
That’s most of what this stuff is, you hit the nail on the head. Normal people don’t talk or write in ‘patentese.’ Some of it is just an optimal way to be extremely precise in written English, but a bunch of it is just accumulated cultural nonsense. Good point.
Like, where do you learn to say "a plurality of" instead of "two or more"? "A first X" and "a second X"? When to express algorithms as flow charts? Those particular examples are well-known, but I presume there's a lot more culture/style like that. That seems as important to me as the formal policy, not necessarily anything substantive but a sign that you're in the club.