He solves super big problems with his super duper computer.
So I was totally thinking about how we completely add so many superlatives to our sentences that we literally have made it absolutely impossible for people to take us seriously if we leave them out.
If you have ever spoken a sentence like that, raise your hand.
I don’t know when we veered off course; however, I do know that we use too many superlatives in our sentences. We want people to feel that what we are saying is something great and monumental. We want our story to sound better than the last one. However, if your last story was something like, “I literally caught a fish the size of the Empire State Building” then how will you top that? We’ve changed the meaning of words like “literally” to more closely match the meanings of their antonyms.
Another problem is that we fear people won’t think we are being sincere if we don’t use them. If my wife asks me what I think of her dress, and I tell her, “That dress is cute”, she might take it as an insult. I almost have to say, “Oh goodness! That is the cutest dress in the entire world” for her to take it as a complement.
I have made a goal for myself. I am cutting down on the superlatives I use in my everyday speech. Because just like monetary inflation, intensity inflation devalues your words.
Last 3 posts by Mark
- If only other politicians were this passionate - September 10th, 2010
- I lost and won my first election - March 23rd, 2010
- Seriously?! - February 17th, 2010
That was so freaking funny, and absolutely 1000% true.
I admit it, I’m VERY guilty. I’ll work on it.
This made me think of something I’ve often contemplated before….living in New York City, and especially working on a trading floor, I hear the F word, ooooh, probably an average of 15 times per day. (I really tried to think realisitcally here.) Okay, maybe that’s even a little high. Some days, I definitely hear is that many times though. And I’d even say other than Sundays, not a day goes by that I don’t hear it at least a couple times. (Just on Monday a girl said it to me twice, while on the elevator going from 3 to 1.) The F word has completely lost its luster (for lack of a better word.)
Earlier today a trader yelled, yes YELLED the F word because a trade wasn’t going well. Did anyone bat an eyelash? No, because it happens all the time.
I think it’s pretty safe to say I’ve been decencitized. I especially realized this when I saw a certain broadway show (and have even claimed it to be my favorite) which has a lot of F words. I didn’t think too much of it, until my aunt and uncle from Utah came out and then warned me, “Whatever you do, DON’T see (show.) We walked out.”
Woops.
Point being, over usage of anything diminishes its shock-value.
haha. great post. couldn’t agree more.
i’ll join you (did I tone the superlatives down enough in my comment?)
Btw, I had a roommate in college who said everything was “THE most amazing” this and “THE BEST” that. And yea, I never bought into anything she raved about. I think we have a brother-in-law who could benefit from superlative deflation too. (sorry dude)
Yeah, don’t ever start telling a wisdom tooth story either. Someone will always beat your story.
This reminds me of when EY started putting “Please consider the environmental impact of printing this email” on the bottom of their email.
Then they decided they weren’t going to print out all the tax returns of clients, but give them to them on a CD instead. Sounds like a good idea at first, but then you realize that the client would have to print them off anyway to send it in, so all they were really doing was pushing the paper cost off to the client.
“If trees could scream, do you think we would be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time for no good reason.” - Jack Handey