A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.

Have you ever wondered where all the bullshit business terms (BBT) came/come from, especially since their spread predates the Net and social media by decades?

A fascinating article in the Guardian traces the birth and rise of business bullshit that sprang from a 20th-century Russian mystic, was embraced by corporate leaders, inspired Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, and has been re-imagined and added to by consultants and pundits ever since.

It hasn’t always been this way. A certain amount of empty talk is unavoidable when humans gather together in large groups, but the kind of bullshit through which we all have to wade every day is a remarkably recent creation.

Founders and others in tech are especially fond of BBT as they go about changing the world.

There’s even an online generator that takes the effort out of remembering terms yourself.

Business bullshit always reminds me of a guy I worked with, who believed the more multi-syllabic words he used the smarter he would sound.

He didn’t and you won’t either.

The article is long, but well worth the reading time.

It might even help squelch your own penchant for using them.

Hat tip to CB Insights for pointing me to the article.

Image credit: Scott Adams

Yesterday I cited John Mackey’s town hall speech as an example of poor communication, even at ­CEO level.

Saturday Business Insider was kind enough to post this video on how and why to stop using filler words, especially in a professional setting as you can clearly see in the transcript of Mackey’s speech.

Not motivated? Then focus on the fact that filler words make you sound dumb.

Image credit: gorfor  

KG sent this to me and I had to share it, in spite of the cease and desist letter I may get from the lawyers.

And for great information on how to avoid being a pointy-haired boss check out the January Leadership Development Carnival.

Image credit: Scott Adams

Did you watch the Super Bowl today?

If you’re a guy you may not have paid much attention an ad from Always.

It looks at how #like a girl has always been an insult and an effort to change that perception.

“In my work as a documentarian, I have witnessed the confidence crisis among girls and the negative impact of stereotypes first-hand,” said Lauren Greenfield, filmmaker and director of the #LikeAGirl video. “When the words ‘like a girl’ are used to mean something bad, it is profoundly disempowering. I am proud to partner with Always to shed light on how this simple phrase can have a significant and long-lasting impact on girls and women. I am excited to be a part of the movement to redefine ‘like a girl’ into a positive affirmation.”

But the insult goes far beyond the days of puberty.

“Will it work for your mom?” and “so simple your mother could do it” are catch terms, especially in the software industry, to indicate the product is simple (AKA, dumbed down) enough that anyone can use it.

The interesting thing is that if you call these same guys out asking if they are referring to their mom/sister/girlfriend/wife they usually say no.

The disconnect starts early. In the Always video at 1:06 the dialog is as follows:

Voiceover: “So do you think you just insulted your sister?”

Boy: “No, I mean yeah… insulted girls, but not my sister.”

There is a giant mental disconnect for most males between ‘women’ and ‘my women’.

And it is that disconnect that needs to change.

Image credit: Always

There’s been a lot said (and ranted) over the last couple of decades about the dumbing down of America. Not just kids, but adults, too.

I’m not referring to the expertise each of us has that allows us to do our jobs and generally function, but of the general knowledge of the world in which we live—literature, geography, art, etc.—call it liberal arts, if you will.

Few Americans are multi-lingual, as opposed to Europeans, East Europeans, Russians, Asians, etc., and our knowledge of geography is laughable.

I remember a survey during the Bosnia war and more than half of the respondents didn’t know where Bosnia was or that it, along with the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Herzegovina, were part of the old Yugoslavia, with Serbia and Montenegro forming the rest—nor did they seem to care.

For centuries, fighting of one kind or another has gone on almost constantly in the Middle East and, to put it mildly, is still going on and having a major impact on us today.

But most people have only a vague idea where these countries are.

How much do you know? Click the MAP below and see how well you do on arranging the listed countries.

On a general level I had them on the right continent, but don’t think much of my knowledge beyond that.

Does it matter? Does knowledge in liberal arts areas foster more than interesting, late night discussions over a bottle of wine?

What does it mean to be educated in the Twenty-first Century?

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: Rethinking Schools