Over the years I’ve developed a habit of noticing certain words as I hear (and use) them, and while noticing them I consider the explicit and implicit meaning(s) behind them. It’s a relatively short but commonly used list of words which ring this mental bell, though the list grows slowly over time.
This post is an introduction to the list to hopefully make it a bit more clear what I’m trying to say as I explore individual words in future posts. As I write these upcoming explorations, I want to tie them together with a common theme. This theme is simply to notice meaning that could easily get glossed over, but by pausing briefly we can hopefully get a better grasp of what is being communicated.
The way this works in my head is that as I hear certain words, it’s like a bell ringing or a flashing light that reminds me to take a short pause and think a bit about what’s being communicated. ( Not a literal bell or light; these aren’t hallucinations 😉 ). I take a brief moment to consider what could be missed as a possible hidden meaning. These particular words have made the list because they tend to point to a subtle ambiguity over repeated uses.
Since this happens during the flow of conversation or during a presentation, it’s a good idea to notice the meaning quickly without getting overly distracted. This requires thinking about the meaning in advance of the conversation, which is the point of these posts. There needs to be a balance between pausing to consider the deeper meaning and not getting distracted and losing the bigger message being communicated. Thinking about these words in advance builds a kind of shorthand method of balancing the pause with the flow.
As I add to the list by making posts about individual words here, I will tag them with WIAW so that if you find this kind of post interesting you can read more of these posts. Conversely, if you don’t then you can avoid them. 😀
Thanks for reading so far. I’d love to hear from you if this idea resonates with you, and if you have similar thoughts. Post me a comment and let me know.
