I do not like Martin Heidegger as a person because of his actions and words during Nazi era but if you are interested in philosophy, it is impossible not to cite him. He stands still in the center of modern philosophy like a big rock. Heidegger attributed a powerful meaning to language by saying "language is the house of Being". This claim shaped existential and post-modern philosophy deeply. There has been many open questions but most of the people agreed that for being an authentic individual, one needs to build and talk his/her own language rather than repeating others' language. If one shapes your language, you are under that person's existential power.
Moving from this perspective, I wanted to have a look at the language in our daily business lives. It won't be a comprehensive examination of course but I will try to give some examples of common use.
Be thrilled & be delighted
During COVID-19 pandemic, because of the predefined grammar embedded in LinkedIn job change function, everyone was constantly thrilled or delighted to announce something. Nowadays, no thrills.
Unlock & Unleash
These two words are used oftenly. When we analyze the meaning, we see that imposing these words presumes there is a blocked potential of the subject. This potential is hidden from you but known by the narrator. The only thing to do is following the narrator's guidence and removing the blocking components from the system. It is very similar to the motto of the coaching: "Every solution and answer is in yourself, I can only guide you to find it, you are to find". We all know that every business hasn't got that much potential locked mysteriously.
Democratize
This word expresses the necessity of positioning a particular technology for the use of as much people as possible so that those users can achieve their business objectives by themselves rather than demanding solutions from the "elite" departments. The analogy is rooted in the number of people involved and of course, it is a naive mentality. I accept that technology is encapsulated knowledge. Therefore, if a person uses a kind of technology, that person accesses the knowledge served by this technology. However, using a sort of encapsulated knowledge through a tool does not imply that user has the knowledge embedded; user just makes use of it. It is like driving a Ferrari at 300 km/h speed without knowing the internals of V12 engine. In that example, we democratize the mobility by making cars accessible to persons: Everyone can go whenever and wherever desired by using a car. On the other hand, we did not democratize mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, aerodynamics, fluid mechanics etc. In the common use cases of "democratize", narrators are saying "democratize software development, machine learning, artificial intelligence etc. by using our technology". It is like suggesting democratizing fluid dynamics by giving someone a car. Non-sense. Business lines in the companies want to achieve their financial goals. It is their job to do. Their job is not to use fancy looking tools. For the special technology development, elite departments will always be needed. We must remember that respresentative democracy is the most common form of democracy in the world.
Revolutionize & Disrupt
A couple of years ago, the word "disrupt" and its different forms were heavily in use and it was related to innovation but nowadays, it stepped down from its throne and gives its fancy crown to the word "revolutionize". It seems innovation is not enough any more, we need revolution. Revolutionize is used very similar to the words "unleash" and "unlock" but in a revolutionized way :) In that case, there is no hidden potential in your company, everything about your company or the system you are in is old fashioned and must be replaced by new things. For example, "banks are big losers, you need to revolutionize financial sector by fintech companies", if you wish... Or "capitalism is rotten and DeFi platforms will revolutionize world trade system". Besides, those "revolutionizations" are proposed as if there exists an already solved problem: There is a very practical tool or method, you just need to buy it and wait for the revolution to happen: "Revolutionize UX by harnessing generative AI". Simple. I believe, we must understand evolution better.
Hybrid
As the name suggests, a little bit from this, a little bit from that, some green, some red... When you cannot propose a robust solution, you can propose a hybrid one. When I hear hybrid, I run away. If you like it, it is up to you.
Toxic
I think it emerged from the prevalent promotion and pratice of mindfulness. If you don't like a person, an attitude or a thing; you can easily label them as toxic. When you do that, you externalize the problem and responsibility. You find your scapegoat. The rest is nice and easy: Detox, there are programs for that :) I think, we have to face our problems, take the responsibility and solve them as an adult would do. Blaming, canceling or labeling are childish traits.
Talent
As Andy Warhol famously said: “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”, every employee is a talent today. Interesting but it is the fact. It is impossible to hire average Joe. This sort of language imposes leadership myth, curses managers, praise team members and completes the composition by saying: "Hello Joe, it is not you, it is your narrow minded and old fashioned manager. You are a talent. It is not you, but your manager's decisions. You need a supreme leader instead of your mortal manager and you need to embrace our methods for salvation. For example, fusion teams and DevSecMLOps and excessive use of post-its & board markers" :)
Version Numbers
It is a good example of vulgarization. Versioning is a notion in software engineering and there are strict definitions and styles of assigning version identifiers to software products. You need to consider, at least, backward compatibility besides other issues like alpha, beta, major, minor, patch identifiers etc. However, nowadays it is very easy for everyone to assign version numbers to any thing or concept such as Web 2.0, Banking 3.0, Industry 4.0, Payments 2.0... Moreover, every new version is a major one and ends with zero. I need somebody to explain the meaning of that zero to me. That love for versioning gets along with the mentality of revolutionizing explained above: Manifestation of a new version, forget about the older one.
There are some more trendy jargons being circulated following the zeitgeist but I stop here.
Let's build our language, our homes, where we dwell. We need that shelter to live, grow and share. Without that, we are nothing.
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