Let's 'Double-Click' on the Latest Cringeworthy Corporate Buzzword(wsj.com)
wsj.com
Let's 'Double-Click' on the Latest Cringeworthy Corporate Buzzword
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/double-click-corporate-buzzword-cringe-421e8cce
46 comments
> they want to talk to those business-y people in their own vernacular.
I don't think it's about using their language for understanding. I think it's because they want to send a signal "Look, I'm like you. Let me be in your in-group." It's a tribal signal.
> but they do't realize we could all just agree to stop doing it and we'd all be happier.
The problem is that everyone wants to be in the high status in-groups, but the high status in-groups don't want to let all the rabble in. This is a perpetually unstable equilibrium. Once any given high status in-group signal becomes widely known by lower-status people, it ceases to be a useful signal for actual high status people (and, worse, eventually becomes a signal for "low status person trying to look high status") so must be discarded and replaced with a new one.
Once you realize it, this phenomenon is everywhere. It's the engine that drives almost all of fashion. It's why buzzwords and jargon come and go. It's where home furnishing and interior design fads stem from. It's why so very few things in our highly social human lives are ever really timeless.
I don't think it's about using their language for understanding. I think it's because they want to send a signal "Look, I'm like you. Let me be in your in-group." It's a tribal signal.
> but they do't realize we could all just agree to stop doing it and we'd all be happier.
The problem is that everyone wants to be in the high status in-groups, but the high status in-groups don't want to let all the rabble in. This is a perpetually unstable equilibrium. Once any given high status in-group signal becomes widely known by lower-status people, it ceases to be a useful signal for actual high status people (and, worse, eventually becomes a signal for "low status person trying to look high status") so must be discarded and replaced with a new one.
Once you realize it, this phenomenon is everywhere. It's the engine that drives almost all of fashion. It's why buzzwords and jargon come and go. It's where home furnishing and interior design fads stem from. It's why so very few things in our highly social human lives are ever really timeless.
It’s like parroting the king in the royal courtroom but for the 21st century. Look what happened to Spain as a warning, next thing anyone knew, one day their whole country woke up talking with a lisp.
The Castillian lisp is only popular in some regions of Spain, and did not originate from people mimicking a king.
It's still a better lisp than CL though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Spanis...
It's still a better lisp than CL though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Spanis...
No, I'm sorry, there actually are true believers. I think some people just have trouble countenancing the idea that maybe some of the people we've given all the wealth and power to really are just dolts. This tends to have an unraveling effect on people's personal beliefs.
They want to be first-movers in the buzzwords space.
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I’ve been hearing “double click” used in business meetings for at least ten years.
Now that the kids-these-days™ have let the tablet and the phone replace the PC, and most PCs are basically web browsers where everything is single click, saying "double click" almost certainly marks you as not on the cutting edge of tech slang.
On the other hand, I don't think "let's tap that" will get much further than an email from HR :)
How can one create a whole WSJ article on the simple fact that "Doublce-Click" is corporate slang? I don't know - because I can't read the article. And if I could, I would do it only of pure curiosity what the author manages to fill in the remaining 99% of the article with.
My boss (who used this one for a while, but haven't heard it too much lately) just asked me to review the agenda prior to tomorrow's meeting so I could "prime my cache". The CEO proudly claimed she's "always been a data nerd!" in today's town hall.
I kind of miss the days when being a nerd was not a cool, even edgy, social statement but something you did to escape the MBA-types who have now stolen it from us.
I kind of miss the days when being a nerd was not a cool, even edgy, social statement but something you did to escape the MBA-types who have now stolen it from us.
Latest trends on stupid corporate jargon are legitimate news. I have a subscription, so some of what you miss:
> The phrase is “innovative,” says Beth DelGiacco, a vice president of corporate communications at biotech company Argenx, who praises its efficiency.
> “It’s only a few syllables. Everyone knows what you mean when you say it,” says DelGiacco, who regularly trots it out with peers.
The same is true of "drill down." It's not explored why "double-click" (3 syllables) is better than "drill down" (2).
> Tech-inflected buzzwords are especially apt to gain traction—think “network,” “bandwidth” or “take offline”—because they can sound smart or cutting-edge, says Doug Guilbeault, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business who has studied corporate jargon.
> The inventor of the literal double-click, former Apple designer Bill Atkinson, isn’t convinced. Reached while boating on a recent weekday, Atkinson, now retired, says he’s never heard anyone use double-click as a metaphor and would steer clear of such usage himself, preferring more straightforward language.
> The phrase is “innovative,” says Beth DelGiacco, a vice president of corporate communications at biotech company Argenx, who praises its efficiency.
> “It’s only a few syllables. Everyone knows what you mean when you say it,” says DelGiacco, who regularly trots it out with peers.
The same is true of "drill down." It's not explored why "double-click" (3 syllables) is better than "drill down" (2).
> Tech-inflected buzzwords are especially apt to gain traction—think “network,” “bandwidth” or “take offline”—because they can sound smart or cutting-edge, says Doug Guilbeault, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business who has studied corporate jargon.
> The inventor of the literal double-click, former Apple designer Bill Atkinson, isn’t convinced. Reached while boating on a recent weekday, Atkinson, now retired, says he’s never heard anyone use double-click as a metaphor and would steer clear of such usage himself, preferring more straightforward language.
> Reached while boating on a recent weekday, Atkinson, now retired, says he’s never heard anyone use double-click as a metaphor
Boy, there's a sentence with a lot to envy packed in
Boy, there's a sentence with a lot to envy packed in
> "Everyone knows what you mean when you say it."
Really? I'm still not sure I know what it means.
Really? I'm still not sure I know what it means.
I'm sure they blame it all on remote work, which has nothing at all to do with trying to prop up commercial real estate.
It’s a giant nothing burger. Nothing interesting or of substance in it. Which is too bad because it would be interesting to know how corporate jargon trends get started. I’d be interested in research on something like jargon use over time compared with innovation.
Have you considered that linguists have studied jargon before? There might even be books about it.
I would recommend another article instead:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/10-annoying-buzzwords-the-who...
It's not paywalled, straight to the point, lists several annoyances and offers some suggestions on what terms use instead.
https://www.themuse.com/advice/10-annoying-buzzwords-the-who...
It's not paywalled, straight to the point, lists several annoyances and offers some suggestions on what terms use instead.
They mildly rebuke the use of "Dogfooding" but I think it's still mostly used in techmical circles. I have a PM who hates it because it's gross and uses "drink our own champagne". I retorted that eating your own dog food should be a little gross and embarrassing; if you've got champagne you've waited too long.
Furthermore the Muse's title is free of cutesy fad words -- "cringeworthy"?
I don’t like it because it means “zoom in” or “focus on,” but in what interface does double clicking so that?
Maybe we should call it “let’s two finger pinch on this.”
Maybe we should call it “let’s two finger pinch on this.”
Let's "double tap"
"That's an interesting idea, Martin. Let's pinch to zoom in on that."
> “let’s two finger pinch on this.”
A move known as 'The Asimov'.
A move known as 'The Asimov'.
i've been complaining about people using "double click" in meetings for at least a decade. how is this news?
To counter your anecdote with mine, I can't recall ever hearing this term used until this year, and I've now heard it multiple times from multiple people in the last few months.
Maybe your company, region or industry were the starting point and it just became widespread recently.
Maybe your company, region or industry were the starting point and it just became widespread recently.
I didn't hear it yet but I guess it's coming soon then...
Oh my, it was difficult to not chuckle with this comment immediately before: "Shorten it to the first letter and the last three and see how long it lasts."
ehaverman and macNchz work in the same place!
A place that skipped the recent invention of the "hypertext link", which enables you to access stuff in half the clicks.
But don't worry, once they upgrade to Windows 98 and its new desktop experience, they'll update the lingo
But don't worry, once they upgrade to Windows 98 and its new desktop experience, they'll update the lingo
such an update is only a double click away.
I'm excited to hear what the WSJ has to say about "fire, dust and bussin'". Look forward to the Business Insider's expose: Boujee vs. Drip!
Why is double click new? I have been using it for many years as a phrase when presenting concepts and have heard people use it too
Shorten it to the first letter and the last three and see how long it lasts.
I really think paywalled articles shouldn't be accepted on HN...
The upvote system should naturally solve this problem. Articles that people can't read won't get updoots. Because nobody would vote on something before at least reading the article, right? Right?
But I can't downvote so...
Because? I subscribe to WSJ - so I can read this just fine. I don’t see why you can’t as well if you find the content interesting. It’s the same with academic journals, people are just sharing what’s interesting and that just so happens to be behind a paywall.
If you remove all paid content you would just have blogs left eventually… And all they’re doing is just paying for the content and regurgitating it.
If you remove all paid content you would just have blogs left eventually… And all they’re doing is just paying for the content and regurgitating it.
>> people are just sharing what’s interesting and that just so happens to be behind a paywall.
so not really sharing, then?
so not really sharing, then?
Sharing with everyone else that has a subscription, or is enticed enough to snag one. I’m not sure why you feel it needs to be free in order for you to consume it? But OK - the rest will just subscribe or move on.
At least add [paywalled].
Otherwise I think I'll move on -- from the website.
Otherwise I think I'll move on -- from the website.
This link only shows the first two paragraphs and then just comments.
I tried archiving it in a browser where I have a WSJ subscription, and it still came out that way.
But I think, deep down, almost everybody using these buzzwords hates the buzzwords.
Yet we end up converging to this terrible prisoners-dillema equilibrium where all the business people start code-switching to talk like buzzword-assholes and hate themselves for it but they do't realize we could all just agree to stop doing it and we'd all be happier.