TechnoLatin (gobbledygook)

I've been reading the Cluetrain Manifesto. Fabulous reading. Anyhow, I got to the chapter where Doc Searls talks about 'TechnoLatin'. Whilst I didn't know there was a word that described it, I realised it was all the verbal diarrhoea (gobbledygook) that surrounded me whilst I worked at Microsoft.

Here's an apt description by Doc of what I witnessed at Microsoft;

"TechnoLatin is now so pervasive in the computer industry that clarity is the exception when it should be the rule. Today we no longer make chips, circuit boards, computers, monitors or printers. We don't even make products. Instead we make "solutions," a fatuous noun further bloated by empty modifiers such as "total," fully," "seamlessly," "industry standard" and "state-of-the-art"

The thing is, it extends beyond the IT industry to that of the hospitality industry. I'm frustrated by those menus that describe the dish so superfluously that I feel like I might as well be playing pin the tail on the donkey when I order. I went to a fabulous restaurant last night, but really, what on earth is 'sauce soubise' to the average guest?

Sometimes it's hard to even recognise I was writing BS when I was surrounded by people doing 'the talk'. In fact I used to act as a jargon buster in client presentations to kill the TechnoLatin. Unless you get out there, (yes outside the campus and into the real world) and meet the customer and try 'the gobbledygook' out on them and see the perplexed face, a marketer really doesn't stand a chance. It scared me how few of the marketing team that I worked with actually got out and met the people they were marketing to. To me, I couldn't do my marketing job without meeting my customer. It was like walking without tying my laces - eventually I'd trip up.

Make an effort. It can be tiresome but it's worthwhile and in my experience quite energising. TechnoLatin is not necessary.

Comments

[dave]

The Perplexed Face. How many times I have encountered this fractured expression! Of course here we are talking about when gobbledygook is vomited from clueless marketers.

But I encounter this face at work when trying to discuss wiki's, blogs etc.

Here is a cool visual for the perplexed face - picture a cow looking at a dollar.

I encountered an extremely serendipitous moment last week. I had just finished writing http://www.daverothacker.com/radioback/2007/06/the_cluetrain_m.html

I began web surfing and within thirty seconds discovered this site, landing on the Cluetrain post. I believe it was from a Logic + Emotion link but not sure.

[Charlotte]

Thanks Dave. Know what you mean about blogs/wikis too. I'm in Australia at the moment and asked a friend in England if we could catch up over Skype. She works on a computer every day and has one at home and is 25 years old. Her response: 'What's Skype?'. I took that as my cue to go no further.