Irritating phrases

Hehe no TheCatWoman - however if I want to explore it deeper I do.  Once I would have used a search engine and then read the papers and still do to fact check.  Before that the library.  And naturally talking with people that I am in contact with. In this case i thought about what I wanted to know more on the topic and used it to explore my thinking on it before posting a response.

"Know what I mean?" as a habituated statement, rather than really checking my understanding of something which is new to me or complex. I think it is done to build rapport but it's irritating. Sometimes I reply, "Yes, I do know what you mean" and it tends to perplex the other person when I do! 

"Close of play". I'm not sure there have been many days in my career where I've thought of work as "play".

Do you run everything through AI?

I asked ai about this:

That so many of us are drawn to comment upon this is in accord with wider research that indicates this to be an autistic trait.

These words and phrases are primarily known as filler words or fillers. Depending on how they are used, they can also be categorised more specifically: 

• Filler Words: Words like "um," "ah," or "like" that bridge pauses in speech.
• Pleonasms: Using more words than necessary to convey a meaning (e.g., "free gift" or "at the end of the day").
• Crutch Words: Words people rely on habitually to give themselves time to think, such as "basically" or "actually."
• Discourse Markers: Phrases that manage the flow of conversation or indicate attitude, like "to be honest" or "look."
• Expletives (Linguistic): In grammar, these are "empty" words that serve a structural purpose but add no meaning, such as the word "it" in "it is raining."
• Intensifiers: Words like "literally" or "very" used to add emphasis, though they are often used as fillers when they don't add actual value. 

Interestingly according to the AI using fewer filler words isn't a "mistake"—it's a sign of a different communication style that prioritises information over social signaling.

And this is perhaps an interesting spin on social communication and autistic people.

I have to really rein in my temptation to "correct" people when they use some type of filler words.  Hehe a really tricky example is when my wife says "we just have to..." when I know that the task involved is far from as simple as being implied...

I think that when I do "correct" people on this it is my way of social signalling - hehe and there's another story about how that is received...

The answer from ai instead suggests one way to avoid being upset by such things is to focus on it being information that is being conveyed a little bit further.  e.g. "basically" or "actually because the person is trying to think what to say next.  Or pleonasms such as "life hack" that impart information about where the person has come to understand the concept of "tips" for how to do things.

Hehe or my wife using "just" to emphasise that she "just wants the thing done (and doesn't want to get involved in thinking about to do it...) 

Anyway, as I used to say to a friend of mine who had a similar habit "at the end of the day - it gets dark ..."

All interesting stuff

:-)

Work jargon is infuriating,.

“Blue sky thinking, I think we need to circle back, low hanging fruit and let’s touch base. 

”At the end of the day.”

Grown people using the word “ick”. 

Sorry not sorry is just being mean while also being wimpy about it

''Its all relative'' 

Keeeep dancing!! (and the dance-hold movement, at the end of Strictly Come Dancing episodes).

Yes? Yes! (and the leg kick, at the end of Bargain Hunt episodes).

"Sorry not sorry" always infuriated me, although I realise that's probably because I look much more at the literal phrasing of it.

It's not just being unapologetic, it's being so against believing they did something wrong that they need to explicitly state it, and doing so in a way that uses apology phrasing to refuse to apologise. It was never directed at me in a malicious way, but as a phrase it just seems cruel.

Thankfully it seems to have mostly died out.

Most definitely.

Number said:

"You might find this link helpful"

Oh, I hate those time-wasting trails across generic phone numbers and organisations that lead in a circle - usually leading to suggestions like, 'have you tried NAS or CAB?'  YES, A MILLION TIMES AND THEY PASSED ME BACK TO YOU. Grrhh. 

Yeah, that was kind of where I was at with it -the combination and usage was just bizarre and I couldn't tell if it was being purposefully ironic, but I think the definitions are constantly shifting with gen A so it's hard to keep up. A symptom of the internet era?

wait, I thought brain rot was... a bad thing or a derogatory term... why do they want to collect it to get a "divine"? What? This is so confusing!

I tried to find out what a lot of them mean, most of the answers are even more baffling than the words themselves

My son and his cousin were playing a weird game mode on Fortnite, were there were waves and they had to collect brain rot to get a divine. I mean, I'm a gamer but they were just saying all these gen A terms, and I just decided to leave them to it. 

I don't understand what any of the examples you've given mean, so if anyone said those things to me I'd stand there like an idiot saying Eh?

Oh, the "literally" thing annoys the hell out of me because it's used the wrong way SO MANY times!

"I'm literally dying of thirst" Right, so right now you're actually near death due to dehydration? How are you still walking and talking like a perfectly normal person if you're "literally" dying of thirst, hmm?