Forbidden Words
This is an evolving list of forbidden words and phrases that are overused or substitute cliches for actual thought. (inspired by HBR Guide for Better Business Writing), the exception is when words are used in the right context. For example, when referring to network bandwidth.
- actionable
- agentic
- {A, B, C} player
- as per
- at the end of the day
- back of the envelope
- bandwidth
- bespoke
- bias for action
- boiling frog
- bring our A game
- capital “B” Bullshit
- client centered
- come to Jesus
- core competency
- CYA
- deliverable
- double click
- drill down
- ducks in a row
- embark
- empower
- foreword initiative
- for what its worth
- from a X perspective
- game changer
- going forward
- go getter
- go rogue
- hill to die on
- hit the ground running
- impact (as verb)
- incentivize
- in the trenches
- impactful
- it is what it is
- kick the can down the road
- kill two birds with one stone
- let’s do lunch
- let’s take this offline
- level the playing field
- leverage (as verb)
- liaise
- lowercase “b” bullshit
- low hanging fruit
- mission-critical
- monetize
- move the needle
- net-net
- nuance
- on the front lines
- on the same page
- operationalize
- optimize
- out of pocket (except expenses)
- paradigm shift
- parameters per
- pick your brain
- pursuant to
- push the envelope
- putting lipstick on a pig
- recontextualize
- repurpose
- revolutionize
- rightsized
- rocketship
- rockstar
- sacred cow
- scalable
- seamless
- seismic shift (except earthquakes)
- silver bullet
- smart sized
- solution (as a verb)
- solve (as a noun)
- stoked
- strategic alliance
- strategic dynamism
- streamline
- synergy
- takeaway
- thats a wrap
- think outside the box
- thread the needle
- throw it against the wall and see if it sticks
- throw under the bus
- transformative
- turnkey
- under the radar
- unleash
- unlock (except physical locks)
- wheelhouse (as in “not in my wheelhouse”)
- world-class
- X - driven - Y (i.e event driven bullshit)
- X - led - Y (i.e bullshit led sales)
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- 2024
- Reinstalling Windows at 1am
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- My Custom Miniflux CSS Theme
- How to Disable Wayland in Debian Testing
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- Future Fonts from Blog – Brad Frost
- 21st Century C++ from Communications of the ACM
- Submarines DevCon 2025 Keynote Speech from JoshHaines.com
- How I Use AI: Meet My Promptly Hired Model Intern from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- DeepSeek from Maggie Appleton
- Digital Reality Digital Shock from Christopher Butler
- 10 habits to help becoming a Debian Maintainer from Optimized by Otto
- Tiny corners from Manuel Moreale RSS Feed
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
MusicBrainz Picard identifies songs from *.mp3 files and automatically fixes metadata
In my first attempt to switch from streaming to move back to listening to *.mp3 files, one of the issues I encountered was organization: how to standardize the metadata of the songs? The solution I was familiar with at the time — manually editing each son…
via Manual do Usuário April 24, 2025Google's control of the web could be coming to an end
It's been hard to avoid the US government's antitrust case against Meta lately, since CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent three days in front of the cameras in Congress, testifying about his company's alleged anti-competitive tactics. But another equall…
via The Torment Nexus April 24, 2025$5 million in tokens stolen from ZKsync
An attacker compromised an admin account belonging to the ZKsync Ethereum layer-2 project, which is built by Matter Labs. By doing so, they were able to steal approximately $5 million worth of the ZK token, which the project said wer…
via Web3 is Going Just Great April 24, 2025Generated by openring