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Top 10 buzzwords to stop saying in 2020 😜BONUS WORD: AI

Rich Keller • November 21, 2019

No, you're not a user centric guru hacker.

Here we go, here are the top ten buzzwords or phrases I hope to never hear in the new year of 2020. I am no saint this year and am guilty of using many of these buzzwords in 2019, but to change is to grow, please join me.

These top ten buzzwords have been getting stale and have become cringe-worthy when listening to an otherwise smart, sane & well-adjusted person.

Some buzzwords refuse to go away and have been multi-year offenders with their meaning actually changing over time, producing layers of cringe.

Take this time to reflect on your own jargon use, as I have also had to reflect on my jargon usage this past year and curb the use of these ten offending buzzwords.

edit: Check out my 2021 List

Guru - The early internet and how it worked used to be a magical unknown realm that only a select few web developers knew how to use and setup properly. Implying to a client in 2020 that you are some kind of a guru that knows all the secrets to this mysterious place actually implies you are out of touch and you should be selling essential oils instead of anything to do with the Internet. Offending Synonym: Rockstar: No! bad dog!
Omnichannel Marketing - This one has been getting on my nerves lately. It's very easy to blanket every advertising channel and social media platform endlessly to make sure your ad is seen by everyone and their dog. But should you? Offending Synonyms: Take It To The Next Level, Boil the Ocean… I mean...
Viral - If something goes viral, great, then it's gone viral. If all you talk about is going viral, you never will. The more you try, the more time you will waste. You have a better chance of winning the lotto 6/49 by picking numbers based on your family's birthdays. How about be happy with getting views outside of family, friends, and staff.
Interweb - OMG, (bonus word: OMG is another one we must stop using) I hope clients realize that if you call us and want something built or edited on the "Interweb", we automatically charge you double. Offending Synonym: Inner'net, Yes it was funny when Lenny said it. You're no Lenny.
Multi-media - Just a sec, I wrote something about this buzzword awhile ago, I'll have to update this list later if I can find it, I saved it on my blackberry in 1998. Offending Synonym: Photoshopped. You don't need photoshop to make a meme.
Customer-centric - If you are in business, what other centric is there? I should hope you are not going after no-customer-centric. That would be risky. Offending Synonym: User-centric, who can use it other than users???
Results-driven - This one usually follows customer-centric. Driven by results?!?!? Oh yeah, because everyone loves spending money and resources on things that have no customers. We should also demand round circles and cold ice. Offending Synonym: Data-driven. Think Start Trek next generation and commander Data is engaging warp drive.
Think outside the box - There is no box. There never was. How about just do the job at hand and don't spend too much time on FB and Twitter. Offending Synonym: Move fast and break things. Clean up in aisle 2!
Hacker - Unless you are writing code to play Tetris with a Chinese water plant mainframe, you are not a hacker. Lifehacker? No, vinegar doesn't clean windows very well, you know what cleans windows really well, available literally everywhere, and is half the price? Windex. Offending Synonym: See the bonus word below.
Going forward - Going forward never say going forward. Everything is going forward unless you've invented the time machine, then, of course, you can go back to before this was created and say these buzzwords as much as you want. Oh, let me know if you find my blackberry. Offending Synonym: In the future. Again with the time travel, Star Trek Much?

😜BONUS WORD: AI

This one is tricky because while "AI" is and will be the hottest tech buzzword for 2020 and the coming years, you should still not say it. If you or your company are actually writing algorithms in Python then you can say it. If you think Python is a snake then you definitely shouldn't mention AI in any conversation.