I am allergic to clutter. I like a clean desk and empty expanses of polished floorboards. When we moved apartments recently, it was the perfect excuse to throw out old magazines, clothes and broken electrical items.
I'm the same when it comes to writing. One of the things I like about this column is that it's only 250 words long, so there's no room for waste. Marketing people who use words like incentivize, leverage and granularity drive me crazy. As David Ogilvy once observed, «Our business is full of idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.» Interesting subjects are just as impressive when they are expressed clearly. Boring subjects are not improved by window-dressing.
My other bête noire (is that jargon?) is wiring. We're supposed to live in a wireless society, yet I have the impression that I am surrounded by more wires than ever before. A Mac, a mouse, a lamp, a backup drive, a printer, a telephone, a mobile phone charger, a wireless modem, a camera charger...Yesterday I tried to install our Orange TV box and there were so many wires that I nearly strangled myself. I don't remember seeing as many wires at my parents' house. This morning somebody sent me a YouTube video about life in the future, when everything from the bathroom mirror to the fridge will be a computer screen. And I bet every single one of them will come with wires.
