Meaningless words

The tech community is overrun with jargon. And there’s plenty of it that serves a specific purpose. But there’s also a lot of jargon that’s become meaningless:

  • Agile – is used for any new idea anyone has about software development processes, and any rehashed idea from decades ago that someone rediscovers
  • The Cloud – seems to be the new way to refer to The Internet
  • Big Data
  • Responsive

Can we stop using these words as if other people understand what we mean. There’s so little precision that I rarely hear people use these words without explaining what they mean. If you can convey your message without using these words your message is much more likely to be received. It’s much more likely to be thought out. It’s much more likely not to be idle chatter.

As buddhists would say, don’t talk if you can’t improve on silence.