Jargon is created when a group of people discuss the same subjects and ideas often, so they require a shorthand to express complicated thoughts quickly. See: scientists.
Jargon is also created when a group of insiders want to exclude outsiders from fully understanding what they’re talking about. See: lawyers. And, increasingly, agencies.
Before I took a commanding lead.
Recently, some coworkers and I took a No BS Challenge. Frightened into action after identifying with too many of these, we tried to avoid saying nonsense words in place of real, understandable phrases. Whoever used the most jargon by the end of the week had to buy the beer. Unfortunately, that turned out to be me.
Now, a lot of our jargon isn’t exclusionary, at least not anymore. But it is unnecessary. We’re still using complicated language to describe simple ideas. That can have no other purpose than to make simple things seem more complicated than they truly are. We live in an age of complicators. To truly stand out, and to be truly interesting, one needs to focus on becoming a simplifier.
Some examples of agency/beaurocratic nonsense that adds unnecessary complication:
- “Critical path” instead of “schedule”
- “Bandwidth/capacity” instead of “time”
- “ASAP” instead of “soon”
- “30,000 feet view” instead of “basically…”
- “Align” instead of “agree”
If you’ve never heard any of these before, I’d say you’ve never worked in advertising/marketing/PR agency. If you have heard these before, or if you’ve even repeated them yourself, or ones like them, I encourage you to take the challenge. I think you’ll find yourself noticing when someone is expressing an interesting idea, or is just trying to make it sound that way. And you’ll notice when you’re doing that, too. It can be… revealing.
Have other nonsense words you’d like to get rid of? Add a comment!
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