So…

So, I have grown out of using the word “like” as my filler word when I speak. Its replacement: So.

And it turns out I’m not alone – according to an article in the NY Times, my use of the word is one of the [few] ways I’m a stereotypical Software Developer

So it is widely believed that the recent ascendancy of “so” began in Silicon Valley. The journalist Michael Lewis picked it up when researching his 1999 book “The New New Thing”: “When a computer programmer answers a question,” he wrote, “he often begins with the word ‘so.’ ” Microsoft employees have long argued that the “so” boom began with them.

In the software world, it was a tic that made sense. In immigrant-filled technology firms, it democratized talk by replacing a world of possible transitions with a catchall. And “so” suggested a kind of thinking that appealed to problem-solving software types: conversation as a logical, unidirectional process — if this, then that.

So much for being unique.

2 Responses to “So…”

  1. Jeff Says:

    is it wrong that I was expecting something different? like maybe “Andif” or “public static void main” or maybe “system.out.println()”?

  2. jenn Says:

    phew, i guess i am still chock full of surprises.
    btw, i googled the expression “chock full of” to make sure i was spelling it right, but forgot the h in chock. you can imagine the google results. and yes, i’m at work.

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