buzzwording

If you work in software development very long, you learn that people who sell technology not only use buzzwords, but invent them on the fly. Once they start to catch on, or are repeated by senior-enough management, everyone uses them in a sophomoric attempt to be one of the cool kids.

Here’s a partial list that I’ve gathered over the years, of the worst that really didn’t need to be used as shorthand for anything:

• Out of the box
• apples to apples (comparison)
• the net net
• change the paradigm / paradigm shift
• basic blocking & tackling
• The (Home Depots, Walmarts, McDonald’s), when referring to other companies of the same size.

Don’t use those. You need to maintain your buzzword capital, and that means not squandering it unneccessarily.

In addition to those random buzzwords and phrases, IT and Computer Science require extra words to describe complicated processes quickly. For instance, every job I’ve interview at in the past 6 months has assumed that I can define “sprint”, and correctly identify what happens well enough to explain how my own processes deviated from ideal. New programming methodologies (like scrum, which weirdly rejects its proper noun status like it’s e.e. cummings or k.d. lang) introduce their own vocabulary. That vocabulary provides and assumes a context. Those are the buzzwords you really need to know and learn how to use effectively. Use them correctly when communicating with others in the field, and you’ll look like someone who pays attention rather than someone who’s blindly grasping at trying to be cool.