<p>Have you ever worked with someone who just uses words they don’t need to, or maybe you’re the one who occasionally tosses in an a little technical lingo? <br /> <br /> Well… STOP IT!</p> <p>You know who you are. Please stop. Using valueless words does not make your product better. It just creates space between you and you coworkers, customers and public.<br /> <br /> Communicate more effectively and keep your clients engaged by staying away from the dangerous 4, 5 or even 6-letter words that confuse and distract the less tech and biz savvy. Some of these include…</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.htmlarea.com/"><b>WYSIWYG</b></a></li> <li><b><a href="http://www.asp.net/ajax/ ">AJAX</a><br /> </b></li> <li><b><a href="http://www.emediamusic.com/">e-[ANYTHING]</a><br /> </b></li> <li><a href="http://widgetify.com/"><b>Wigitify</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=3435361"><b>Web Services</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/02/16/what-is-social-media/"><b> Social Media</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wimax-industry.com/voipoverwimax.htm"><b>VOIP WIMAX</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/21167.php"><b>Proprietary Platform</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/4233616/4233617/04233678.pdf?arnumber=4233678"><b>Ecosystem Platform</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.synergistic.com/"><b>Synergistic</b></a></li> <li><b>XD - 3D Holographic Mobile Streaming </b>(ok, made this up)</li> <li><b><a href="http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3729026">Work Bandwidth</a><br /> </b></li> <li><a href="http://www.bdamp.com/?p=8"><b>Social Widget Platform</b></a></li> <li><a href="http://readywait.com"><b>Innovative Solution Builder</b></a></li><li><b>Health 2.0 (see Jasmine's note below)</b></li> </ul> <p>What are these things? Can't we just speak 'normal'?</p> <p>The age of Web 2.0 only makes things worse where geeking-out is glorified and out-acronyming someone is considered a valid 'dis'.</p> <p><b>This list of banned words falls into three categories…</b></p> <ol> <li><b>Tech-Speak Gibberish<br /> </b>Just like in the <a href="http://www.vidstogo.com/player.php?vfname=burnsanniston&amp;ext=wmv">SNL clip</a>, these are used by computer guys/girls and can include a mesh of computer/sci-fi terms interwoven into an impenetrable mesh of gobbledygook - and who likes gobbledygook? Nobody, that's who.<br /> </li> <li><b>Smartie Talking</b><br /> Slather in some multisyllabic business speak and layer in words made up by 15-year old Swedish kids without batting an eye. As a general rule it’s best to stay away from anything you might have heard used in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfY2qIsFxio">Office Space</a>.<br /> </li> <li><b>Absolute Nothingness</b><br /> Take for example "innovative solution-building". It just pulls at the soul. Doesn't "we help your business succeed" just sound better?</li> </ol> <p>Using complex technical or industry terms might be fun while playing Dungeons & Dragons with your buddies (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax">R.I.P. Gary Gygax</a>), but when you're engaging your clients there really ISN'T any need to get all technical on them. <br /> <br /> Everything can and should be explained in a simple and straightforward manner. Let’s give this a try with some phrasing for a few difficult issues…<br /> <br /> <b>Laptop Hard Drive Failure</b><br /> COMPLEX – “The buffer overran its bounds and the read head dismounted”<br /> SIMPLE - “Your hard drive is broken, you should buy a <a href="http://mac.com/">Mac</a>.“<br /> <br /> <b>Sniping, Dishonest Employee</b><br /> COMPLEX – “Yeah, so we’re restructuring and need to realign business sensibilities during this transitional relationship period.”<br /> SIMPLE - “Pat, you’re fired”<br /> <br /> <b>Brain Tumor</b><br /> COMPLEX – “The frontal lobe is overcompensating for high pressure glandular stimulation”<br /> SIMPLE - “Something is blocking your body from working properly, we’re going to fix it.”<br /> <br /> Simple just works and all without using any dreaded banned words! <br /> <br /> <b>BEFORE YOU BERATE THE AUTHOR</b>- Now I am not implying that there aren’t legitimate times when these tech or more complex phrases should be used. There obviously are. <br /> <br /> What I am encouraging is that tech professionals use the LEAST amount of acronyms possible and that they stay away from any word that was created less that 6 months ago (ex: <a href="http://www.twitter.com">twitify</a>, etc).<br /> <br /> So, help make the world a better place and communicate more efficiently by staying away from the banned list. <br /> <b><br /> Can you contribute any other terms you’ve heard (and heard too much)?</b></p> <p><b>**UPDATE** </b></p> <p><b>Speak to your audience? </b>It was mentioned that one should always focus on their audience - great point Michael! However, I would still stand by the core message of this article - be a minimalist when it comes to discussing tech or biz. </p> <p>Lets look at the example of Apple v Microsoft. They both do something VERY complex for a variety of audiences (general consumers, techie folks, businesses), but they take alternative approaches. Apple stays STEADFAST in winning by playing it simple, while Microsoft at times has made things a bit more <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx">complex </a>.</p>
2008-03-25T04:13:30Z
2008-03-25T05:50:11Z
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2008-03-25T05:43:19Z
2008-03-25T05:43:19Z
<p>Communicate more effectively and keep your clients engaged by staying away from the dangerous 4, 5 or even 6-letter words that confuse and distract the less tech and biz savvy. Some of these include…</p>
BANNED WORDS - Words that should never be uttered to clients…
0
2009-02-24T09:43:32Z