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  1. #461
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Quote Originally Posted by dudog84 View Post
    Vacuum.

    Because if Nature abhors a vacuum, and I like to be in tune with Nature, I have to at least dislike it, right?

    And then there's the whole housework angle.

    However, that "uu" is quite enticing. (not to be confused with "double u")
    Nature must be filled with self-hate since nature (the universe) is mostly vacuum.

  2. #462
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Chapel Hill must have one big vacuum, because the school there sucks mightily.

  3. #463
    Dislike: operationalize

  4. #464
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    Dislike: operationalize
    Would you elaborate on your reason for disliking it? I have a guess, and suspect that I would agree in that context, primarily because the word is being misused. When used correctly, I think it's a word that is unwise to avoid.

  5. #465
    Quote Originally Posted by BLPOG View Post
    Would you elaborate on your reason for disliking it? I have a guess, and suspect that I would agree in that context, primarily because the word is being misused. When used correctly, I think it's a word that is unwise to avoid.
    It seems needlessly stuffy. Sort of like the interviews that police officials give. I saw it used twice in a report recently, and both times it could have been replaced by "begin using." I believe "operationalize" was used correctly where I saw it -- something was being built and then would be used. But that was already clear from the context. "Operationalize" bugs me the same way that "utilize" bugs me. "Utilize" really bugs me (and can always be replaced by "use") -- its use stops me in my tracks. Makes me think less of the speaker, and sometimes makes me wish the speaker harm.

    Switching gears -- and maybe this deserves its own thread -- but I really like the ampersand (&). And I like the Oxford comma. I was surprised to see them used together here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1505111218/

  6. #466
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    New Jersey

    Corporate Jargon

    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    Dislike: operationalize
    I work for one of the largest pharma companies and have developed a real disdain for corporate speak although, admittedly, I've used many of these from time to time. In addition to "operationalize," here are some classic examples:

    Synergies
    Game changer
    It's on my radar
    Elephant in the room
    Take it offline
    Think outside the box
    Corporate values
    Do more with less (or lately, do less with less)
    Low hanging fruit
    Ping me
    Dive deeper or Deep dive
    Drill down
    Raise the bar
    Action item
    Bandwidth
    To champion
    Core competencies
    Disruptive business model
    Ducks in a row
    Organic growth
    Knowledge transfer
    Move the needle
    Out of pocket
    Reinvent the wheel
    Value added
    Transparency
    Rich
    "Failure is Not a Destination"
    Coach K on the Dan Patrick Show, December 22, 2016

  7. #467
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    Quote Originally Posted by Rich View Post
    I work for one of the largest pharma companies and have developed a real disdain for corporate speak although, admittedly, I've used many of these from time to time. In addition to "operationalize," here are some classic examples:

    Synergies
    Game changer
    It's on my radar
    Elephant in the room
    Take it offline
    Think outside the box
    Corporate values
    Do more with less (or lately, do less with less)
    Low hanging fruit
    Ping me
    Dive deeper or Deep dive
    Drill down
    Raise the bar
    Action item
    Bandwidth
    To champion
    Core competencies
    Disruptive business model
    Ducks in a row
    Organic growth
    Knowledge transfer
    Move the needle
    Out of pocket
    Reinvent the wheel
    Value added
    Transparency
    Gee thanks. I'm in an angry mood now after reading all those!

  8. #468
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    It seems needlessly stuffy. Sort of like the interviews that police officials give. I saw it used twice in a report recently, and both times it could have been replaced by "begin using." I believe "operationalize" was used correctly where I saw it -- something was being built and then would be used. But that was already clear from the context. "Operationalize" bugs me the same way that "utilize" bugs me. "Utilize" really bugs me (and can always be replaced by "use") -- its use stops me in my tracks. Makes me think less of the speaker, and sometimes makes me wish the speaker harm.

    Switching gears -- and maybe this deserves its own thread -- but I really like the ampersand (&). And I like the Oxford comma. I was surprised to see them used together here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1505111218/
    The way you have described it matches my suspicion, but not what I would consider correct (or at least useful). I think of "operationalize" in the context of operationalizing variables or something similar; that is, to explicitly define them and identify the manner in which they are measured. Moving something from the realm of vagueness to the realm of specificity is something I think is pretty important, a thing that people often need prodding to do, and a thing that needs a name.

  9. #469
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Quote Originally Posted by BLPOG View Post
    The way you have described it matches my suspicion, but not what I would consider correct (or at least useful). I think of "operationalize" in the context of operationalizing variables or something similar; that is, to explicitly define them and identify the manner in which they are measured. Moving something from the realm of vagueness to the realm of specificity is something I think is pretty important, a thing that people often need prodding to do, and a thing that needs a name.
    For me "operationalize" is an example of verbing, as is the word "verbing." I often find solutioning in this manner to be an annoyance.

  10. #470
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    North of Durham
    Quote Originally Posted by Rich View Post
    I work for one of the largest pharma companies and have developed a real disdain for corporate speak although, admittedly, I've used many of these from time to time. In addition to "operationalize," here are some classic examples:

    Synergies
    Game changer
    It's on my radar
    Elephant in the room
    Take it offline
    Think outside the box
    Corporate values
    Do more with less (or lately, do less with less)
    Low hanging fruit
    Ping me
    Dive deeper or Deep dive
    Drill down
    Raise the bar
    Action item
    Bandwidth
    To champion
    Core competencies
    Disruptive business model
    Ducks in a row
    Organic growth
    Knowledge transfer
    Move the needle
    Out of pocket
    Reinvent the wheel
    Value added
    Transparency
    When I was in a business school strategy class with a mediocre professor, we would play buzz word bingo. Someone would randomly put these types of words and phrases on a bingo table, and also insert random words like guacamole. If you won, you had to say another random word to let everyone know (though I once had a classmate just yell out "bingo!") It was funny seeing people trying to get the professor to say words they needed. Though after a while I started feeling bad for him...

  11. #471
    Quote Originally Posted by camion View Post
    For me "operationalize" is an example of verbing, as is the word "verbing." I often find solutioning in this manner to be an annoyance.
    Yeah, I detest the use of words in that way. In the case of "operationalize," if people are using it that way then they are just using it wrong.

    Sometimes I wonder how to ask people at the office not to butcher language so badly, but I can't think of a tactful way to do it. It seems to be the sort of thing that you understand or you don't.

  12. #472
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    I thought this was a fun list, but I can't take credit for it. It's from The Book of Lists #2.

    Words rarely used in their positive form (only my favorites):

    Canny (Scottish: free from weird qualities or unnatural powers)
    Conscionable (conscientious)
    Corrigible (correctible)
    Couth (marked by finesse, polish, etc., smooth)
    Delible (capable of being deleted)
    Effable (capable of being uttered or expressed)
    Evitable (avoidable)
    Feckful (efficient, sturdy, powerful)
    Gruntle (to put in good humor)
    Maculate (marked with spots, besmirched [another good word])
    Nocuous (likely to cause injury, harmful)
    Peccable (liable or prone to sin)
    Sipid (affecting the organs of taste, savory)

    Only canny made it by the board's spellcheck. Maybe because it's Scottish. I have had friends that liked to comment "He has no couth". (Edit: not about me, of course!)

  13. #473
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    We have made it more than 450 posts in this thread and no one has offered "kerfuffle". So I will. It's great.
    Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.

    You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner

    You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke

  14. #474
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Location
    New York City
    I don't like very long words because I usually have a problem to read it first time

  15. #475
    The name of my boat:

    Callipygous.

    Now I just need a boat.

  16. #476
    Quote Originally Posted by fidel View Post
    The name of my boat:

    Callipygous.

    Now I just need a boat.
    You know what they say: Your 2nd greatest day is the day you get your boat.

  17. #477
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA.
    Quote Originally Posted by Indoor66 View Post
    You know what they say: Your 2nd greatest day is the day you get your boat.
    Not sure I know this one, but I suspect the greatest day is the day you sell your boat?
    "We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust

  18. #478
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by rsvman View Post
    Not sure I know this one, but I suspect the greatest day is the day you sell your boat?
    yup, that's the saying.

    The other is the definition of a "boat": a hole in the water that you throw your money into.

  19. #479
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Engaged or Engagement - I'm very tired of these.

    I work at a university and the concept is good, but the words are severely overused.

  20. #480
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA.
    Quote Originally Posted by camion View Post
    Engaged or Engagement - I'm very tired of these.

    I work at a university and the concept is good, but the words are severely overused.
    I take it you are not speaking about people pledging to get married. In that setting these words are fine.
    "We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust

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