Absolutely

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for a quick and easy method to identify if your corporate office is in the gradual process of innovative decline? If so, the answer is right before your ears, just simply listen to the vocabulary being used as it is a tell-tale sign as to the creative state of your staff.

A big clue is the frequent use of some common words, the main culprit of today being the word “absolutely”. Yes, you will hear “absolutely” being used with an increasingly high verbal frequency by a huge cross-section of employees, all unknowingly mimicking each other with involuntary abandonment in an attempt to sound “absolutely impressive”. But don’t be fooled, as with each nonchalant utterance, the employee is slowly eroding their ability to think creatively as they continue to narrow their thoughtful intellect.

Apparently, there are 171,476 words currently being used in the English language, so says the 2nd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, with 47,156 obsolete words. So, those in the corporate office have a plethora of alternative words they could wittily choose from besides that most tedious and infamous word known as ‘absolutely’. Yes, it’s time to strategically add ‘absolutely’ to the mind dumbing obsolete word list for the sake of innovation!

When next you hear someone in the office use this soon to be defunct word, offer them the use of your Thesaurus, or maybe suggest another more apt word that impresses them with your mastery of the English language. Yes, it’s time my verbally educated friends for a word revolution!

And may ‘absolutely’, soon RIP, never to be heard again.

The Law of Scrabble

scrabble

Letters are tricky objects, particularly so when left alone to their own arrangement. For centuries now, these 26 individual English characters have been portrayed as inanimate symbols, but that was indeed furthest from the reader’s comprehension.

Letters are most devious and have the imaginative ability to mentally reach out to the writer to get them combined into an alignment of grammatical strength where they can dictate their self-gratifying messages of command.

To avoid any potential human mutiny to their authority, Letters have created a complex array of continually updated syntax to ensure ongoing user bamboozlement, and to ensure that their vocabulary importance is never challenged, nor questioned.

Letters frequently align themselves in a position of strength and are usually not left on their lonesome, except for their leader “A”, a Letter that is quite unique and content to operate in isolation.

However, in the year 1938, the ordered life of the Letter changed forever. Yes, the culprit was a man called Alfred Mosher Butts and he challenged the happy status quo of the Letter by introducing the element of randomness into how Letters might be utilized by the thinker. No longer would a full powerful complement of 26 Letters hold the verbal attention of the user; Mr Butts cleverly restricted their influence to an unwordly 7 haphazard Letters for thoughtful “sentencifical” construct. As the years unfolded, the Butt’s invention was eventually known as the “Law of Scrabble” and it is still in operation today, and looks likely to prevail for many years into the future.

Now for those of you that work in the corporate office, you will be interested to know that the “Law of Scrabble” signalled the start of the modern age of innovation as mankind was now no longer subservient to the whimsical and tiresome demands of Letters. Yes, the users of Letters were now masters of their own written destiny of creative prose.

The year 1938 heralded noun and verbal freedom, and the patenting of many new writing inventions were quickly transcribed into inked existence via the application of the “Law of Scrabble”. Some of the more marked 1938 inventions were; the ballpoint pen that was triumphantly verbalised by Ladislo Biro, similarly the invention of the dry photocopier by Chester Carlson that dissipated any remnants of Letter uniqueness with an easily obtainable mirrored copy.

The “Law of Scrabble” also opened the reading person’s eyes to the real definition of the word called innovation. For decades, Letters of the English language had successfully masked its true meaning via the application of many obtuse rhymes, and a plethora of other devious grammatical diversions.

The “Law of Scrabble” allowed mankind to uncouple the individual letters used in the word innovation (10 letters) into two smaller, and more readily understood words, each within the 7 letter Scrabble limitation. These two words were: “In” (2 letters) and “Novate” (6 letters), which when combined formed the word “Innovate.

Now, should you use a dictionary that has its allegiances with those treacherous Letters, you would find that the definition for “Innovate” is: “To do something in a new way”. Reading between the lines, this definition wants mankind to keep using the old traditional Letters, but just mix them around a tad. Yes, our reliance on the Letter would indeed continue and the worker in the corporate office would be none the wiser, nor creative.

But by using the letter revelation yielded via the application of the “Law of Scrabble”, a slightly different meaning is cleverly unravelled counter to the wishes of the Letters:

In: “used to indicate location or position within something”,
Novate: “to replace (an old obligation) by a new obligation

So the word “Innovate” means to replace old Letters with new and different Letters. Or in more colloquial language, think differently, and use new Letters, some of which when assembled may form a word you have not previously encountered or understood. But the key is to be bold, italic and even indulge in some embellished conjugation when required. Yes, extend your vocabulary and seek new words, some of which may even be in a new language! The result will be the attainment of verbal innovation!

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