Maybe I’ve heard, spoken, read and written too many words over the years, but I prefer to listen to a person who uses precise, simple words to explain complex things.
This means I’d rather not bother with gobbledygook that “business thinkers”, “thought leaders” and “innovators” invent solely for the sake of making an impression or for marketing their latest book/speaking tour.
The result? Most people who have worked with me know two of my strongly-held and rarely disproved beliefs:
1. Very few people have more than 7 minutes of new information to share
2. Call things what they are rather than trying to invent cutesy terms
Ok. Call me cynical. But at least my cynicism is based on experience.
Every now and then, however, someone uses a word that is worth keeping. For example, I remember a meeting a dozen years ago when someone explained the definition of “lenticular” (Look it up. Discovery is good for you). Or 15 years ago when someone used the word “orthagonal” in a conversation, eliciting a sneer from me (assuming it was a pointless pretense), until I thought it through and realized it was the perfect word to articulate the thought he was sharing.
Then there’s the guy 8 years ago who used the word “asymptotic” over a dinner conversation with a group of smart people, all of whom decided he was just trying to appear intelligent, but instead was ignored for most of the dinner as the unanimous opinion was that he coughed that word up solely as an attempt to be intellectually impressive.
You get the point.
All this rambling to say that yesterday in the midst of a 2-hour meeting, I learned a new word.
It is my gift to you:
“Zettabyte” — 1 trillion gigabytes; the equivalent of 40,000,000 years worth of HD video. (or maybe one Kevin Costner movie).
You’re welcome.