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Comment by mattmanser | Hacker News Reader

It's removed all the fairly meaningless corporate buzzwords like:

    roadmap
    structural change
    nimbler
    streamlined
    impactful

And many more.

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While they may be jargon, they're not meaningless. I mean, roadmap? Is there anyone who has worked at a tech company that doesn't know what a roadmap is, and why it's important? Is there anyone who doesn't know that nimbler means better able to react to changes in the marketplace?

They're jargon as well as buzzwords. They mean things, but they're unnecessary.

"Roadmap" -> plan, strategy

"Structural change" -> internal reorganizing, lay-offs

"Nimbler" -> fewer employees, which we hope will make us become more agile

"Streamlined" -> ambiguous and essentially meaningless by itself

"Impactful" -> revenue- and/or growth-generating, maybe "important"

You're suggesting we revert to Chaucer's English because linguistic drift is bad?

I'm as much a hater of overuse of jargon as the next person, but for his intended audience I don't think this is an example of that. If one doesn't know what any of those words mean, then "Hello, welcome to Hacker News."

No, it's simpler English. It's not trying to put artificial distance between speaker and audience. There is a power component to these language queues.

It's like the difference between legalese and regular English.

* cues

But I'd argue that the "jargon" version is more precise in most cases. I mean, to me, roadmap means a very specific thing about lining up high-level features with milestones, while plan and strategy mean something more generic. Same with "nimbler" - seems like just an easier way to say more agile.

I'll give you "structural change" though, which I think is just a euphemism for layoffs.

> But I'd argue that the "jargon" version is more precise in most cases

Legalese is also more precise, but also violates the "give it to you straight" principle.

Isn't "agile" more buzzwordy than "nimbler"?

Only if referring to "Agile" methodologies. I believe here the usage is "able to move quickly and easily".

Its meaningless because no one has official corporate goals of becoming less streamlined, or less nimble, or a less clear roadmap.

Content free filler might be a more polite way to put it.

I could demonstrate the uselessness of content free filler by inserting (VLM took a breath here) (VLM fixed a typo here) all through my post above, but all it would do it boost word count and water down the core message, kinda like .... yeah.

There is another story on the front page at this moment about training a neural network to generate clickbait... I'd like to see a trained NN that eats CorporateSpeak and outputs English. It smells simple; at least at a low performance level it just has to pattern match and eat "content free filler" or whatever you want to call it.

They are euphemisms.* People react poorly to euphemisms when hearing bad news, because it feels like it's spin. Which it is.

*Perhaps with the exception of "roadmap", which is actually a better word choice than "plan" or "strategy" as it connotes a long journey ahead.

If those offend, you should try reading any financial research articles that delve into details or PR wire announcements. ;)

That is of course assuming that you like being offended.

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