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From the beginning, let’s get this straight. The Buzzword
Dictionary is meant to be fun -- and hopefully a little
educational.
But it’s not the culmination of my life’s work. And while it
took me eight years to produce it, I didn’t slave alone for days
on end in a dimly lit room pounding out what I hoped to be the
definitive collection of buzzwords.
In
fact, I seldom wrote more than one definition on any given day.
And I had thousands of people helping me write the definitions.
I
should explain:
You see, eight years ago my colleagues and I came up with this
goof-ball idea of writing a Buzzword Dictionary to make fun of
our CEO (name withheld just in case I need him for a future job
reference). He was an intriguingly pompous sort who couldn’t
have a simple chat without spewing out a dozen buzzwords to
describe his vision for the company.
Of
course, after writing 75 definitions I realized that this
book-writing thing was a lot of hard work and I didn’t have that
kind of time and energy. After all, I had two small children who
thought Daddy shouldn’t spend so much time in front of the
computer.
So
I created BuzzWhack.com, a Web site dedicated to poking fun at
buzzwords, particularly business buzzwords, which seem to
consume our lives.
Now here’s the good part.
Since I didn’t have the time to write a book, I thought I’d get
BuzzWhack’s readers to do it for me. So I asked them to nominate
buzzwords that drove them nuts. Since BuzzWhack’s inception more
than 2,000 people have done just that and the site has become a
popular feature on the Internet with nearly 10,000 folks
receiving BuzzWhack’s daily e-mail -- Buzzword of the Day.
Now more than eight years and hundreds of thousands of Web
clicks later, The Buzzword Dictionary is finally ready for the
book shelves.
I
hope you enjoy it, but most of all I hope you get a good laugh.
John Walston
BuzzWhacker-in-Chief
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