When Anna Weiner moved from a New York publisher to a Silicon Valley start-up, she was stunned by the way people spoke. The technology firm she worked for hired ‘a man who spoke in inscrutable jargon and maintained a robust fleet of social media accounts: He had thousands of followers and behaved as if he was an influencer. He was constantly changing job titles on a website where people voluntarily post their resumes, giving himself promotions to positions that did not exist’ (Weiner, 2020, pp. 162–3). Weiner was stunned when ‘the influencer brought a scooter into the office and rolled about barking into a wireless headset about growth hacking: value prop, first moved advantage, proactive technology, paralellization. Leading edge-solutions. Holy grail’. ‘It was garbage language to my ears’, Weiner writes, ‘but the customers loved him. I couldn’t believe it worked’ (ibid).
The ‘garbage language’ Weiner stumbled on is not unique to Silicon Valley. Organizations in many industries are infused with similar language. The ex-Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway collected up some examples in her ‘guffopedia’. They include ‘chief pollinator’, ‘iconicity’ and ‘loincloth strategy’. Stephen Poole’s (2013) dictionary of management speak has entries on ‘thought shower’, ‘drill down’ and ‘going forward’. Another dictionary of business jargon includes ‘consumer centric’, ‘fast track’, ‘talent pipeline’ and ‘going granular’ (Watson, 2015). Sometimes these terms refer to precise ideas. But more often, they are meaningless and misleading forms of communication. In other words, they are bullshit.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 20.9 ms ] threadThe ‘garbage language’ Weiner stumbled on is not unique to Silicon Valley. Organizations in many industries are infused with similar language. The ex-Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway collected up some examples in her ‘guffopedia’. They include ‘chief pollinator’, ‘iconicity’ and ‘loincloth strategy’. Stephen Poole’s (2013) dictionary of management speak has entries on ‘thought shower’, ‘drill down’ and ‘going forward’. Another dictionary of business jargon includes ‘consumer centric’, ‘fast track’, ‘talent pipeline’ and ‘going granular’ (Watson, 2015). Sometimes these terms refer to precise ideas. But more often, they are meaningless and misleading forms of communication. In other words, they are bullshit.