It has to do with the slang phrase "the hot and the cool, which puzzles many people. The way it's used in slang reverses the meaning of cool . "Cool" in the slang form has come to mean involved, deeply participative, deeply engaged. Everything that we had formerly meant by heated argument is now called "cool" in slang. The idea that cool has reversed its meaning has some bearing on the fact that our culture has shifted a good deal of its stress into a demand that we be more committed, more involved in the situations in which we ordinarily work.