The 5 words I avoid in daily conversations
Having been in the startup space for a short and meaningful period in 2014/2015, I can empathise the need for marketeers and founders on holding down the trigger with these five adjectives. Let's go through these individually.
"INTERESTING"
This is the prime example of politeness gone wrong. When someone comments on what you're saying as "interesting", hate to break it to ya, but it's probably not. It's so overused to a fault where we outright ban to this word during design reviews. In asian culture, it's acceptable to be polite, but saying something as "interesting" rarely help as constructive feedback.
"EXCITING"
Excitement usually makes your heart race n the good way, otherwise it's probably on the opposite of the spectrum with a better description, anxiety. I reserve describing something as "exciting" when it truly does make me yearn for it and make my heart race.
"AWESOME"
The word "awe" by itself deserves its own discourse. Remember the last time someone being introduced as "awesome"? Too many to count? Me too. Folks, remember if you describe or call everything or everyone as awesome, nothing or no one is.
"AMAZING"
In the same vein of sinfulness with "awesome", "amazing" has been overused to point of death to describe literally anything under the sun. Do yourself and your loved ones who surround you a favour, only call something amazing when they truly are.
"SUPER"
"Super" is an intensifier in the English language to describe something to a certain degree. It has degenerated to the point today I feel folks are just subbing with the word "very". Super lazy yeah? I know. I'll only allow two instances of when to use the word Super; a flying man with laser eyes and the fancy air-conditioned place to buy my groceries.
No doubt, these words are not going away anytime soon. Just jump into any english-speaking call on Clubhouse (the new social chat app) that's all the hype. Better, play a drinking game whenever someone mutters any of these 5 words while on a Clubhouse call about VCs, crypto or any contemporary topics. I promise you'll have one heck of a time.
KAI LEOW © 2024