One of my pet peeves is the trendy overuse (and misuse) of certain words. I’ve railed in the past on the endless use of traction and space by my VC and entrepreneurial brethren. “World class” no longer means anything to me and I wish more people would use the word “fuck” in casual conversation since it’s so versatile.
When I received the following email from Richard Matthias today, all I could do was smile.
“Since you were banning words a while back I’m wondering if could ban the word ‘play’ as in “the China play”, “the energy play”, “the tech play”, etc. I don’t think I read you use it, but anyway, I’m fed up with hearing investors talking like they’re football coaches. You’re not football coaches, you’re not even talking about football!”
Right on Richard. It’s too bad I don’t have the power to ban words – I would if I could.