10 Most Overused Tech Terms

Based on two laps around the exhibitor hall at OSCON and a couple of years working in the sometimes awkward space between marketing folks and developer folks, following is my list of the 10 most overused words in tech.

You’ll find these on a zillion websites, banners, and those spring up signs that people drag around in the airport. There’s probably a name for those, but I’m glad not to know what it is. If you know, don’t tell me.

It’s all an attempt to make an API or a service that has no material substance come to shape and life in the mind of a developer so that he’ll use it and love it and maybe make some contributions to the repo or pay some money for it.

And here they are…

1. ninja. I have no idea how this expert in stealth, martial arts, and throwing stars came to represent the height of developer prowess, but it has… even though most developers wouldn’t be caught dead in black uni-suits or toe socks, and likely would be caught dead if they tried sneaking into the enemy’s lair under the cover of night.
2. awesome. The term that attempts to capture that moment when a mortal lays eyes on a select sunset, a view of the milky way, or the power of God himself is reduced to describe the experience of successfully requesting a client record and retrieving his sales history.
3. guru. One who knows everything about a religion becomes one who knows everything about his programming language.
4. leverage. Sometimes the word use would work just fine, but for some reason we’re still compelled to leverage things.
5. cloud. A list of clichés would not be complete without cloud. Never has a term risen so high so quickly. Hey, that sort of works! Do keep in mind that your cloud is actually on the ground. I’m just saying.
6. stack. A choice of collaborating technologies building on top of one another. A stack. Got it. Yep, that describes it.
7. bits. You’ve never seen a bit, but you talk about them all the time. Is that in the latest bits? Do you have access to the latest bits.
8. mind blowing. Sometimes it does feel like that, but not often. I can recall on fewer fingers than has one hand the number of technologies that have felt like they blew my mind. And even then my mind remained literally unblown.
9. real time. Even though most of the time it’s not true, it’s fun to say that your software runs in real time. The more honest claim near real time performance. What’s near? Within the hour?
10. bacon. And making the list due entirely to the fact that I saw it used an entire 3 times in one exhibit hall… bacon. I love bacon for breakfast. Heck, I love bacon for lunch and dinner and dessert too. It feels like a cheap shot though to compare your API to bacon so I’ll love it. I’m still going to use your API though… since you said bacon. I do love bacon.