So, I listen to podcasts on the way to and from work, and let me tell you, nothing is more irritating that hearing some random Microsoft employee or intern start every sentence with "so".
So, if I ask an MS employee if the sky is blue, the answer will probably come back as "So…. yes." Or alternatively, "So, not today because it is cloudy, so however tomorrow it’s supposed to be sunny, so it will be blue tomorrow".
So surely you can see how irritating this gets, right?
So, they use the word so so often it becomes mere audible filler. So it’s kind of like, "um", except "um" isn’t abusing the English language quite so much.
So, see what I mean?
– Eric.
So.
Hi Eric,I was going to write "So, what?" but was afraid the joke might get lost in the medium. ;)I agree that overuse of "so" is annoying. I didn’t realize Microsoft’s folks were more or less guilty of it, though. I’ve always found "um" to be the best bet – much better than "uh" or "okay".Unfortunately, in writing, I tend to be a "so" abuser. I just can’t seem to write in a direct manner that doesn’t depend heavily on nonsensical segues like "so" or "well".So, well, that’s it.
So true.
Another word you’ll here Microsofties use way to much is "super-." As in "I am super-excited about the product pipeline!" or "we’ve been working super-hard to make this feature better in the next release."
So, I am gonna try super-hard to use less of these audible fillers… 😉