What is garbage speak?

Garbage speak is a community of thought leaders sharing out the latest developments in human language.

What you see on the front page of garbage speak are real world examples of people communicating at their jobs, online, or writing to a larger audience. The front page consists of garbage speak-laden excepts from those communications. Much of what you see here comes from internal email and Slack conversations. It is our belief that this garbage should not remain behind walls, but made available so our fellow thought leaders can learn to speak with a deft command of inscrutable language.

We are the value drivers of our organizations, and we are here to futureproof language against stagnation.

We verb nouns and noun adjectives.

We speak like our boss’ bosses.

Can you provide examples of garbage speak one might see in the wild?

Thanks for the ask.

Garbage speak is more feeling than science. Garbage speak often adheres to common formulas: nouning verbs, verbing nouns, and nouning adjectives. But truly novel garbage is a complex animal that can’t be pinned down.

With that complexity in mind, the thought leaders have synced and we’re happy to share out these garbage speak examples with accompanying analysis to help aspiring thought leaders navigate the garbage space.


Garbage speak: Is there a solve for this?

Analysis: The speaker has nouned the verb solve. They are asking if there is a solution.


Garbage speak Can we circle back to the ask here?

Analysis Circle back is a garbage speak mainstay meaning “return” or “get back on topic”. The verb ask has been nouned.


Garbage speak We’d like to be intentional about the space we give our employees.

Analysis This is complex. Intentional is being used not to communicate intention, but to communicate that the speaker is hip to therapy speak – a sub genre of garbage speak. Space is used in the same way, but it’s serving a dual role. Its second role is that of a deeply ambiguous word that fills literal space in a sentence, making the speaker sound more like their boss. Is it physical space, emotional space (therapy speak), or some amalgamation of both (safe space)? It doesn’t matter – anything can be space in garbage speak.

What are the rules for thought leaders posting new garbage speak?

You can post any garbage speak seen in the wild, so long as it is not embellished and if the garbage was not made in a public setting, it does not identify any individuals or organizations.

Garbage speak suspected of embellishment will be removed.

If the garbage speak is not proprietary, e.g. an internal company Slack conversation, we encourage users to add URLs to original sources.

If a post is perceived as hostile or harassment, it will be removed.

Do I need to sign up to anything to become a thought leader?

Yes. We require registration to combat spam / ensure that repeat embellishment offenders don’t abuse the system.

What’s the go-to-market for future features?

TBD – we’re thinking about adding a leader board for top trash. Only registered users will be eligible for the leader board.

Can I contribute?

The pinnacle of thought leadership begins with contributions to this site’s git repository https://github.com/acaloiaro/garbagespeak.com.