'So' Is 'Actually' not 'Performant' but Do We Need it for 'Hygiene'?
Kirk notes the pervasive use of “So“ as the first word out of the mouths of Microsoft speakers. Another biggie in MS parlance is “actually” which is sprinkled randomly throughout sentences. It is almost always redundant.
A few years ago, I was watching a big Microsoft satellite broadcast in a Toronto theatre. The constant and distracting use of “absolutely” to express agreement or begin a reply sparked laughter among the spectators. By the end, people were shouting out “Absolutely!” in anticipation of the speaker's next word. It often was the next word, which increased the comedic effect. Fortunately, “Absolutely” has faded from the scene.
The non-word “performant” still appears in MS land but seems to have faded in the last few months. “Performant” is a legitimate adjective in French to express “powerful” or “performs well”, but I expect that most of the MS people using it are native English-speakers, not French.
I think the worst example of a ridiculous buzzword came from Nortel Networks when I worked there. People used the word “hygiene” to indicate that a feature had to be included in the product or we would look bad. I think I boiled over when a manager dismissed the efforts of technical writers by saying, “We need documentation for hygiene.”
Ken
Toronto