Transcript
Welcome to Iconoclast Insights. I'm André Daus, and today I would like to discuss something that has been troubling me lately. It started innocently enough - I was reading articles about technology and business, and I kept seeing the same phrase over and over: "the new era."
The new era of web development. The new era of e-commerce. The new era of marketing. The new era of... everything, apparently.
And I started asking myself: what does that even mean? What the hell is an era?
The Question
So I did something simple. I asked people. When someone told me their product was ushering in "a new era," I asked them: "What's an era?"
The responses were fascinating. People stumbled. They used other vague words to define it. "You know, like a new phase." A phase of what? How long? What distinguishes it from the previous phase?
They couldn't tell me.
And that's the problem. We're using words we can't define to describe changes we can't articulate. We're speaking, but we're not saying anything.
What Era Actually Means
Let me give you the actual definition. An era is a long and distinct period of history marked by particular characteristics or events. The Victorian Era. The Industrial Era. The Bronze Age.
These weren't just marketing slogans. They were fundamental shifts in how human civilization operated. They lasted decades, sometimes centuries. They changed everything about how people lived, worked, and understood the world.
So when someone tells me their SaaS platform is creating "a new era in project management," I have to ask: really? Is your Kanban board really comparable to the invention of agriculture? To the printing press? To industrialization?
The answer is no. But they use the word anyway. Because it sounds important. Because it sounds transformative. Because everyone else is using it.
The Game-Changer Problem
And "era" isn't alone. It brought friends. "Game-changer" is everywhere now. Steve Jobs could say "this changes everything" when he introduced the iPhone, and he was right - that device genuinely transformed how billions of people interact with technology and each other.
But now? Every app is a game-changer. Every update is revolutionary. Every feature is groundbreaking.
When everything is a game-changer, nothing is.
The language has been inflated to the point of collapse. We're using the vocabulary of genuine transformation to describe incremental improvements. And in doing so, we've robbed ourselves of the ability to recognize or discuss actual transformation when it occurs.
The AI Complacency Factor
Here's where it gets more concerning. We're now in a time when generating content is easier than ever. You can ask an AI to write your marketing copy, your blog posts, your product descriptions. And the AI will give you professional-sounding content, complete with all the buzzwords: era, game-changer, revolutionary, transformative.
The content is smooth. It's polished. It sounds authoritative.
And people copy it. They paste it. They publish it. Without thinking critically about what it actually says. Without asking whether these words mean anything in this context. Without taking responsibility for the claims they're making.
This is complacency. And complacency is dangerous.
The Accountability Gap
In the past, creating content required effort. You had to sit down, think through your argument, choose your words carefully. You were limited by time and cognitive energy, so you made sure whatever you said mattered. You were accountable for it because you put yourself into it.
But today? Today we can generate thousands of words without thinking about them at all. We can hide behind soft language and vague terminology. We can make grand claims about "new eras" without defining what we mean. And if someone calls us out, we can retreat: "Well, you know what I meant."
No. I don't know what you meant. Because you didn't know what you meant.
This creates a world where everyone is talking, everyone is publishing, everyone is claiming to influence others - but nobody is saying anything, and nobody is taking responsibility for what they say.
The Gender-Neutral Parallel
This same pattern appears elsewhere. Take gender-neutral language. I'm not arguing against inclusivity - I'm pointing out that when we replace specific terms with vague ones, we often lose clarity. When we prioritize not offending over being understood, communication suffers.
The same principle applies to marketing language. When we prioritize sounding impressive over being precise, when we choose words because they're trendy rather than accurate, we diminish meaning. We make it harder for people to understand what we're actually saying. And that’s definitely not inclusive.
And here's the crucial part: if people don't understand what you're saying, they can't critically evaluate it. And if they can't critically evaluate it, you've essentially removed their ability to disagree with you, to challenge you, to hold you accountable.
Is that the world we want? Where everyone speaks in vague, impressive-sounding terms that mean nothing, and nobody can pin down what anyone actually claims?
The Real Harm
You might think I'm overreacting. They're just words, right? Just marketing speak. Everyone knows not to take it seriously.
But that's exactly the problem. When we normalize meaningless language, we normalize not thinking. We create an environment where critical thinking atrophies. Where people stop asking "What does this actually mean?" and start accepting whatever sounds good.
This isn't harmless. This affects how we make decisions. How we evaluate products, services, ideas. How we hold businesses and institutions accountable. How we distinguish between genuine innovation and repackaged mediocrity.
When everything is revolutionary, we lose the ability to recognize revolution.
The Challenge
So here's what I'm asking you to do. The next time you're about to use a big word - era, game-changer, revolutionary, transformative - stop. Ask yourself: do I know what this word actually means? Can I define it? Does it accurately describe what I'm talking about?
And if you're reading or hearing someone else use these terms, don't just accept it. Ask them what they mean. Press them for specifics. Hold them accountable for their language.
This isn't about being pedantic. This isn't about being difficult. This is about maintaining the integrity of communication. This is about preserving our ability to think and speak clearly in a world that increasingly rewards neither.
Closing
We're not living in the era of everything. We're living in a time when people use the word "era" for everything, and that's very different.
Language matters. Precision matters. Thinking critically about what we say and what we hear matters. If we want to influence others - and most of us do - we need to take responsibility for our words. We need to mean what we say and say what we mean.
Otherwise, we're just adding to the noise. And there's already more than enough of that.
(Phew, that has been a rant today.)
This has been Iconoclast Insights. Think critically. Speak precisely. Take accountability.
