On Corpspeak
I really hate this kind of language, but it is really useful in an American corporate context, as I have recently realized while doing an executive MBA program.  A lot of Americans tie up a lot of their emotions in work success.  A lot of other Americans don&#x27;t care about their co-workers, and don&#x27;t want to put in the effort to figure out how to actually respect people (calling cheap places to work &quot;discount&quot; is a good example of this).  Sometimes, the same person is in both groups.<p>The way to usefully make both groups work with others is to use language that is devoid of meaning and, in particular, lacking value judgments.  That way, you can say &quot;Steve, can you explain the learnings from your recent project?&quot; and mean either, &quot;Steve, you fucked up, what are you not going to do again?&quot; or &quot;Steve, your project went great, what tips can you share?&quot;  That way, Steve can feel recognized for his achievements even when Steve did something that was really stupid.  Steve&#x27;s colleagues have an emotional barrier, too: they won&#x27;t feel bad for Steve if you are calling out his failures, and they won&#x27;t feel bad for themselves if you are saying that Steve did something exceptional.<p>It&#x27;s really fucked up how we have created this sanitized dictionary, but it&#x27;s too effective in a corporate context not to use it.