Corporate Jargon Correlates with Poor Judgment, While English's Contradictory Words Showcase Linguistic Richness
By
hn_acker
Slow-proofed and worth the wait. Worth its weight in flour.
Summary
Cory Doctorow discusses the correlation between corporate jargon and poor judgment, while celebrating the malleability and nuance of the English language. He highlights how English contains words that mean their own opposites (like 'cleave' meaning both 'to join together' and 'to cut apart'), and explores the richness of this linguistic phenomenon. The article reflects on how corporate language often lacks this nuance and how appreciation for linguistic complexity relates to better judgment.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledLove of corporate bullshit is correlated with bad judgment
I'm a writer, so of course I care about words! But I'm a writer, so I also think that words are improved by their malleability, duality and nuance.
This is one of the things I love about being a native English speaker – this glorious mongrel language of ours is full of extremely weird words, like 'cleave,' which means its own opposite ('to join together' and 'to cut apart').
English is full of these words that mean their own opposite, from 'dust' to 'oversight' to 'weather'
Article URL: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/19/jargon-watch/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47442215
Points: 14
# Comments: 0
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