Worm with Glasses

Coding • DevOps • Personal

Mar 6, 2023

How Business Speak Destroys Language

I’m far from the first person to decry how “business speak” destroys our ability to communicate. However, yesterday I read a blog post where “business speak” rendered–genuinely insightful–information less readable:

Even if a project fails before any go-to-market attempt, you can still get learnings out of the experience: You might have picked up some new technology or at least understood somewhat better the inner workings of the organization you work for.

What will be important is to make some effort to capture these learnings lest this value is lost.

(Emphasis added.)

Learnings?

Do people talk like this in real life?

Learnings might be old, but its above usage is decidedly modern and “buzzwordy”.

Why repurpose a word that conveys less information when we have existing strong nouns and verbs?

How about:

Even if a project fails before any go-to-market attempt, you can still learn from the experience: You might have picked up some new technology or at least understood somewhat better the inner workings of the organization you work for.

What will be important is to make some effort to capture this knowledge lest this value is lost.

I won’t nitpick the rest of the sentences: those two changes already improve clarity.