The only difference I've seen in 30 years as editor and now content marketer is the speed to jargon.
I was groaning and shaking my head in disgust and agreement for this entire post.
My first job as an editorial intern in 1995 was sorting through the 5 or 6 bins of mail the editor would get over a month (capture and document management magazine) to write the "new stuff" column.
Reading/skimming that many press releases led me to quickly understand that no marketer wants to use a penny word when they can string together multiple dollar words together to obfuscate their point (if they had one, many didn't).
Out of curiousity (and as a potential way to find a few new clients), I'm running through IDP vendor websites and marketing materials. It remains mostly as shitty and self-referential as it did when I was a wee baby editor lo these many moons ago.
It makes sense that AI so often produces such dreadful output, laden with cliches and jargon, because its training data was based on volumes of mediocre writing. Whenever I use NotebookLM's audio output I have to be specific as to who the audience is and define the personas of the speakers, otherwise, the output is sub-par. Thanks for sharing your insights!
Good insight 😃. Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
Sure thing!
Many thanks !!!
The only difference I've seen in 30 years as editor and now content marketer is the speed to jargon.
I was groaning and shaking my head in disgust and agreement for this entire post.
My first job as an editorial intern in 1995 was sorting through the 5 or 6 bins of mail the editor would get over a month (capture and document management magazine) to write the "new stuff" column.
Reading/skimming that many press releases led me to quickly understand that no marketer wants to use a penny word when they can string together multiple dollar words together to obfuscate their point (if they had one, many didn't).
Out of curiousity (and as a potential way to find a few new clients), I'm running through IDP vendor websites and marketing materials. It remains mostly as shitty and self-referential as it did when I was a wee baby editor lo these many moons ago.
Every now and then, I get annoyed and write about this too. Last year was the last time: https://simplyusefulmarketing.substack.com/p/buzzwords-suck-and-confuse-customers
Great post on why marketing jargon turns people off.
THANK YOU for spelling this out!
I especially liked that Joel Embiid's picture was next to marketing gibberish. Well done.
That was a little easter egg just for you
It makes sense that AI so often produces such dreadful output, laden with cliches and jargon, because its training data was based on volumes of mediocre writing. Whenever I use NotebookLM's audio output I have to be specific as to who the audience is and define the personas of the speakers, otherwise, the output is sub-par. Thanks for sharing your insights!