The video takes a critical look at the overuse of buzzwords and corporate jargon that have infiltrated both professional and personal conversations. It humorously explores how statements full of words like sustainability, synergy, and mindfulness sound profound but are often devoid of real meaning, leading to confusion and disconnection rather than genuine understanding. The presentation explains how this vague, grandiose language—sometimes referred to by philosophers as “bullshit”—has moved from the boardroom into everyday life, muddying communication and eroding clarity.

Viewers are invited to reflect on why this linguistic trend matters: Rather than fostering connection, vague and abstract language can separate us, consume our time, and render our cognitive landscape barren. The video points out that advice or corporate slogans that sound impressive on the surface frequently lack substance beneath, serving more to dazzle or obscure than to communicate. With clever analogies and examples, it demonstrates the dangers of this communication style and urges resistance to the normalization of such language in daily life.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Abstract jargon and buzzwords can hinder clear communication and build barriers instead of bridges
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When empty language becomes the norm, it wastes our time and drains meaning from our vocabulary
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To combat this trend, we should call out unclear language, simplify our own communication, and always question what statements actually mean, aiming for clarity and genuine connection
Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. grandiosity [ˌɡrændiˈɑːsəti] - (noun) - The quality of being impressive or imposing in appearance or style, often excessively so; exaggeration in manner. - Synonyms: (pompousness, magnificence, extravagance)

How comes our language has morphed into this circus of unclarity and grandiosity?

2. morph [mɔːrf] - (verb) - To gradually change or transform into something else, especially in form or nature. - Synonyms: (transform, change, evolve)

How comes our language has morphed into this circus of unclarity and grandiosity?

3. lingo [ˈlɪŋɡoʊ] - (noun) - A type of language, especially one that is specific to a particular group or context; jargon or specialized language. - Synonyms: (jargon, slang, dialect)

This fancy talk, once the exclusive lingo to 90s boardrooms, has spread into our everyday lives...

4. profound indifference [prəˈfaʊnd ɪnˈdɪfrəns] - (noun phrase) - A deep or intense lack of concern or interest. - Synonyms: (apathy, nonchalance, detachment)

This variety of bullshit has a special a profound indifference towards truth, like your cat is to your needs.

5. dazzle [ˈdæzl] - (verb) - To impress or confound someone with outstanding ability or striking appearances. - Synonyms: (amaze, astonish, impress)

A bullshitter's primary ambition isn't to educate you, but to dazzle with a barrage of words...

6. emergent [ɪˈmɜːrdʒənt] - (adjective) - Coming into existence or prominence; newly formed or developed. - Synonyms: (developing, budding, nascent)

We are not an emergent property of a mechanical universe, but the seasonal activity of a living cosmos.

7. entail [ɪnˈteɪl] - (verb) - To involve something as a necessary or inevitable part or consequence. - Synonyms: (involve, require, encompass)

What exactly is a Coffee Forward experience? What does it entail?

8. quagmire [ˈkwæɡˌmaɪr] - (noun) - A difficult, sticky, or awkward situation from which it is hard to escape. - Synonyms: (predicament, dilemma, morass)

Yet here we are, sinking hours, days, lifetimes into a quagmire of nonsense...

9. cognitive landscape [ˈkɑːɡnɪtɪv ˈlændskeɪp] - (noun phrase) - The state or arrangement of one’s thoughts, understanding, and mental environment. - Synonyms: (mental framework, psychological space, intellectual environment)

Every time we encounter these words, stripped of their meaning, a little part of our cognitive landscape turns into a wasteland.

10. verbal sanity [ˈvɜːrbəl ˈsænəti] - (noun phrase) - A state of mental well-being with respect to speech and language, marked by clarity and sense. - Synonyms: (clarity, lucidity, coherence)

We've taken the first step towards verbal sanity.

How to decode bullsh*t buzzwords - Ivana Leiseder - TEDxZurich

So let's start with a little exercise. Imagine you had to write down five words buzzing around your ears lately, whether at the office coffee machine or while looking at your friend's Instagram story. Which words would you choose? Let me take a wild guess. Sustainable Diversity Equality Leverage Growth Inclusion Pivot Synergy Mindfulness Shift. Any hits? Now throw these words into a blender. And what you get? Statements like let's harness sustainability to drive equality or let's drive equality to harness sustainability. Sounds impressive, right? But what does it actually mean? Leaves you clueless.

And what about these renamings of everyday items by very famous brands? So it's not made up, it's from famous brands. Live Performance Solutions. Portable Lifestyle Systems. Reading containers. Any guess what they stand for? We'll find out later on.

How comes our language has morphed into this circus of unclarity and grandiosity? And what does this talking do to us? Having spent the past 15 years juggling words as a journalist, teacher, consultant, and author, I've spotted a worrying trend. While we exchange sounds and letters in an increasing manner, we also increasingly talk in buzzwords devoid of meaning, leaving others clueless. With this, we aren't building bridges, we're crafting walls that tear us apart. So it's high time we call it quits.

But first, let's go back to the opening credits. What sort of beast are we dealing with when we hear sentences like let's harness sustainability to drive equality or when a company is trying to sell live performance solutions? This fancy talk, once the exclusive lingo to 90s boardrooms, has spread into our everyday lives, making our worlds bigger and more complicated than they need to be and often far from what's real.

Philosophers, those guardians of clarity in thought and language, have coined the term for this phenomenon, bullshit. And we're not talking about the kind that's useful in the gardens. This variety of bullshit has a special a profound indifference towards truth, like your cat is to your needs. And some kind of bluff. A bullshitter's primary ambition isn't to educate you, but to dazzle with a barrage of words, hoping that something, anything, will stick. It's like throwing spaghetti at the wall, except that the spaghetti are made of words and the wall is you.

So bullshit isn't about how things are, but how things appear. It's not about clarity, but an agenda. Consider the corporate classic Together we're changing the world for the better. Statements like this aren't meant to inform us, but to sprinkle feel good fairy dust onto us, making us feel like we're part of some big plan, even though it's not really clear what the plan is.

What truly elevates the art of bullshit is its commitment to being as abstract as possible. Social media is full with examples of this. Let's take the inspirational quote that says, we are not an emergent property of a mechanical universe, but the seasonal activity of a living cosmos. Sounds profound, almost mystical. But again, what does it mean?

And then there's the Coffee Corporation, a very famous one, promising to deliver an immersive ultra premium. Wait for it. Coffee Forward Experience. What exactly is a Coffee Forward experience? What does it entail? An extra shot of espresso? A barista whispering sweet nothing to the beans before grinding them? The truth, as is often the case with bullshit, is out there.

So bullshit flourishes where looking good is more important than being honest, aiming to confuse rather than to clarify. Bullshit is a maze of unclarity where every turn brings us further from understanding.

Now, let's be clear. We've all been guilty of slinging a little bullshit every now and then. Sometimes it's just easier to say I'm leveraging my skill set instead of I'm just trying to do my work without crying in the bathroom. But when bullshit becomes the main cause rather than just the seasoning, it's a problem. It's like eating marshmallows for every meal that looks fluffy and exciting, but leaves you bankrupt on the inside.

But why, you might ask, does it matter so much? Let's paint the picture. You're in dire need of some life advice, so you text a friend. In return, you get have to be true to your inner self to follow your path. Great. What does it mean? This kind of advice doesn't pull us closer. Rather, it's like a missed high five, awkward and unfulfilling, driving a wedge between us. Like pineapple on pizza.

Diving deeper, we'll find that bullshit isn't just a separator, it's a black hole. Our brains, bombarded with this fluff, start to reflect the void. Take sustainable, once a beacon of hope, now a word so overused it's like telling someone you're fine, it means everything and nothing all at once. Every time we encounter these words, stripped of their meaning, a little part of our cognitive landscape turns into a wasteland.

Let's honor sustainability to drive equality. What do you think when you hear that? What images come to your mind? Let me guess. At best, a shapeless, colorless smash. More likely, though, nothing. But that's not the whole picture. Bullshit also steals Our time, our most precious asset. Yet here we are, sinking hours, days, lifetimes into a quagmire of nonsense when we could just be, I don't know, engage in something more meaningful.

So what's the game plan? Step one, we need to become bullshit FBI agents whenever something smells fishy. It probably isn't just the office microwave, it's linguistic pollution. So call out bullshit whenever you see it. Step two, purge the bullshit from your own language. If you can't explain something to your six year old nephew, maybe it's not worth saying. Instead of saying let's foster mindfulness for a more inclusive society, just say, let's be nice with each other. See, breathe in, breathe out. And let the bullshit float away.

So now that we've ditched the fluff, we've taken the first step towards verbal sanity. But how do we keep our feet on the ground and not get swept away by a tidal wave of bullshit? Here's the golden incessantly asking, what does this mean? This isn't just any question. It's the question. It's about pushing for clarity in every word we speak and every sentence we hear. Ensuring our time isn't wasted navigating through a fog of fancy words that at the end of the day just evaporate into thin air.

Socks are socks, not life. Performance solutions. Water bottles aren't portable lifestyle systems. And books, those beautiful bound collections of words, they're not reading containers, they're books. Yes. So let's not be dead fish floating down a stream of bullshit. Let's be salmon fearlessly swimming upstream towards the spawning ground of clarity.

To wrap this up, let's take a quick trip back to 50,000 years ago. Back then, language was about surviving, not about who could sound the most like a LinkedIn influencer. It was about passing on knowledge. For example, how not to get eaten by a saber toothed tiger. My hope for us, that we reclaim language with the same purpose and clarity to connect, inspire, and maybe, just maybe, make our world a tad less confusing. And with that, let's drop the mic on bullshit.

PHILOSOPHY, INSPIRATION, BUSINESS, CORPORATE JARGON, LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION, TEDX TALKS