Oh my stars, the jargon (ep. 1)

<rant mode>

Dispatch from the day job

Lately I’m seeing a lot of companies and people add “with intent” to many of the things they do.

“Building our company with intent.”

“Infusing intentionality into everything we do.”

Those are real sentences that exist, and probably shouldn’t. There’s a better an easier way.

#1: Show me, don’t tell me.

Nobody except your marketing lead or VP wants to see you claiming to be intentional, or humble, or any of the other adjectives. Your actual audience wants to see you doing the actions. They’ll assign the adjectives in their own minds, and it’ll be much more powerful for you when they do.

#2: Spare me the fluffy virtuousness.

I sharpened my pencil with some serious intentionality just now, but that doesn’t mean it was a virtue-signaling opportunity. The more you claim your own virtue with unsupported jargon, the more skeptical people become of it.

So:

Just. Use. Clear. Words. It. Makes. You. Sound. Smarter.

(And, yes, more intentional.)

</rant mode>