New Ideas Require New Language
Originally published at BostInnovation.com
As an entrepreneur and lover of big ideas, I read and follow many other creative folks online. And when I say follow, I mean follow-the-work-of, yes, but I also just mean follow on Twitter.
The great thing about Twitter is that if you make thoughtful choices about who to follow, you quickly get a feel for what’s really happening in your field — what collective ideas are brewing, what kinds of projects people are working on, what kind of language people are using to talk about all of those ideas and projects.
Much of the time, people I follow write and talk about interesting things using engaging, slightly surprising language. They hook me in. Equally often though, I notice many people using what feels like old, tired language to communicate new, otherwise interesting (sometimes even groundbreaking) ideas — language so tired it has little to no chance of making me want to click a hyperlink so as to find out more.
As anyone in the online world knows, getting me to click is crucial.
Tired language is a problem because it doesn’t mean anything anymore. What sort of language am I talking about exactly? Obvious examples are phrases like “follow your dreams” or “make a difference.” I stopped caring about these phrases in my teens and instinctively move away from them whenever I see them. I delete the Email, I leave the website, I ignore the tweet. Despite being positive ideas, phrases like these turn me off rather than invite me in. They do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do.
I don’t see people using these particular two phrases very much anymore, but hopefully you get my point. As creative people, when you talk about new ideas with old language, you do a very poor job of communicating the richness and potential of whatever new idea it is you’re toying with and working hard to get out into the world.
Tired language doesn’t do big ideas justice.
Rather than make a list of present-day, commonly used words and phrases that feel tired to me personally, I simply want to encourage us all to think about this question of energy inside and behind our words — especially where new, innovative ideas are concerned.
Let me say I am guilty of tired language myself, too. We all are. There are only so many ways to say things. And if we’re in the business of ideas, as opposed to writing literature, perhaps it doesn’t make sense to spend tons of time trying to craft wonderfully fresh language. But whenever possible, out of respect for our likely very good ideas, let’s work at infusing real energy into our writing. Whether we consider ourselves writers or not, I have no doubt this will give us far better chances of getting people to listen.
Next time you find yourself writing something that makes you yawn, even just a little bit, pause for a moment and try switching some things up. Make slightly riskier choices. Ask yourself, what is it exactly that you want to say, and then stretch yourself and go reach for those words. Your readers will be grateful to you. The good news is, once you’ve got devoted readers, they’re actually quite difficult to lose.
