corporate jargon equals verbal play doh
On the one hand, language is a wonderful tool. It allows us to describe these other worlds in metaphors that help us think and imagine them. But there are many places where our language leaves us in the lurch. Like with vision, we don’t have a word for detecting light but not having a conscious experience of it.
ed yong • What Counts as Seeing
Sometimes I think of it in this way: if the words already exist to describe something new then maybe it is not truly that novel after all.
Internet Blue • "Disregard the Words"
Chosen carefully, words don’t just describe innovation; they enable it.
Courtney Hohne • The monkey, the tiger beetle and the language of innovation
Beyond their meaning, words also differ according to how easy they are to pronounce. People generally prefer not to think more than necessary, and they tend to prefer objects, people, products, and words that are simple to pronounce and understand. In 2006, my colleague Daniel Oppenheimer and I investigated the performance of hundreds of stocks imm
... See moreAdam Alter • The Power of Names
As marketers, we love portmanteaus because they often convey concepts in a unique way. “Advertorials” allow you to create advertising with editorial content to both educate your audience and sell your product. Or how about a “listicle?” Is it an article or a list? Who cares—it’s simply a new, fun way to consume content that makes it easy for reader
... See moreLMD Agency • I Love You So, Portmanteau!
And yet it should be possible to gaze into this alphabet soup and divine patterns. Our attraction to certain words surely reflects an inner yearning. Computer metaphors appeal to us because they imply futurism and hyperefficiency, while the language of self-empowerment hides a deeper anxiety about our relationship to work — a sense that what we’re
... See moreMolly Young • Why do corporations speak the way they do?
Jargon hides our lack of understanding. When forced to write out an idea from start to finish in simple language, you discover where you struggle … where it doesn’t quite make sense … where you get frustrated … where you don’t really understand as well as you thought. Only by identifying gaps in your knowledge can you fill them.
Shane • The Feynman Technique: Master the Art of Learning
My generic career advice for young people is that if at all possible, you should aim to work on something that no one has a word for. Spend your energies where we don’t have a name for what you are doing, where it takes a while to explain to your mother what it is you do. When you are ahead of language, that means you are in a spot where it is mor
... See moreKevin Kelly • Interview: Kevin Kelly, Editor, Author, and Futurist
"Portmanteau words are now a staple of the magazine competition, and amid the waste of failed invention, every so often one meets a need: smog, stagflation, chocoholic. I don't know how we ever did without 'metrosexual', coined by my friend Mark Simpson."