• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Dion Almaer

Software, Development, Products

  • @dalmaer
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • RSS
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Parenting

Changing your typical word habits

September 8, 2015 Leave a Comment


I generally dislike the overly PC nature that we face at times. I am all for showing respect, but dislike it when people are shamed to hide thoughts that come to mind.

The thought police is a wrong idea. We shouldn’t feel guilt at what shows up in our conscious mind. Try to measure on how we act on these thoughts.

That being said, I attempt to better myself, and at times this means retraining the language that I use.

One of the somewhat minor nit picks of late has been the term “normal”. The vaste majority of the time I can exchange the word for “typical” and it works much better. Being abnormal comes across as more strange than being atypical.

“No, but” vs. “Yes, and”

My wife has trained me well on this one. When one of my younger kids gives an idea, rather than jumping on a minor mistake and giving the perfect answer, affirm what was correct and add to the conversation.

This follows the age old rule of improv. You will find that it works well with kids, and adults for that matter!

Hell yeah!

If there are speech patterns that you want to change, how do you go about doing so? It is hard to catch yourself whenever you come across one of these patterns.

Sorry Mum, but I rarely say “ducking”

One great way to do so it through the magic of autocorrect! I can go into my phone and computer and make sure that I don’t say “guys” as often as before. I can fix up my typing left and right, and this builds a new muscle memory that can come with me into my speech.

You can also have fun by going into your friends devices and cleaning them up a little. I love the kid who pranked her mother by changing “no” to “HELL YEAH.”


Ah those crazy kids. Typical!

E for Evil in Mr. Robot

Fellow Humans

It is one thing to change what you type or say, but you often want to change what you see and read.

The great new TV show Mr. Robot has a protagonist who has managed to think “evil corp” when he sees “e corp”, and that is how you see the world too… through his eyes.

In the world that we are in, content and advertising is being spewed at us all day and one of the magical abilities of being human is that you can’t not read something if you look at it!

Some take this into their own hands. One great topical example is the browser plugin that changes the term migrants to fellow humans. As an “alien” myself, I always found the term somewhat other.

This isn’t about being politically correct, but showing you a different way to look at things. We have so much bias, that having tools that try to unbias us will probably pop up more and more.

Not only can I change my ways of writing, I can change how I consume them too, and a flywheel can start to turn.

Are there terms that you have tried to change in your communication?

Primary Sidebar

Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • I have scissors all over my house
  • GenAI: Lessons working with LLMs
  • Generative AI: It’s Time to Get Into First Gear
  • Developer Docs + GenAI = ❤️
  • We keep confusing efficacy for effectiveness

Follow

  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Tags

3d Touch 2016 Active Recall Adaptive Design Agile Amazon Echo Android Android Development Apple Application Apps Artificial Intelligence Autocorrect blog Bots Brain Calendar Career Advice Cloud Computing Coding Cognitive Bias Commerce Communication Companies Conference Consciousness Cooking Cricket Cross Platform Deadline Delivery Design Desktop Developer Advocacy Developer Experience Developer Platform Developer Productivity Developer Relations Developers Developer Tools Development Distributed Teams Documentation DX Ecosystem Education Energy Engineering Engineering Mangement Entrepreneurship Exercise Family Fitness Founders Future GenAI Gender Equality Google Google Developer Google IO Habits Health HR Integrations JavaScript Jobs Jquery Kids Stories Kotlin Language Leadership Learning Lottery Machine Learning Management Messaging Metrics Micro Learning Microservices Microsoft Mobile Mobile App Development Mobile Apps Mobile Web Moving On NPM Open Source Organization Organization Design Pair Programming Paren Parenting Path Performance Platform Platform Thinking Politics Product Design Product Development Productivity Product Management Product Metrics Programming Progress Progressive Enhancement Progressive Web App Project Management Psychology Push Notifications pwa QA Rails React Reactive Remix Remote Working Resilience Ruby on Rails Screentime Self Improvement Service Worker Sharing Economy Shipping Shopify Short Story Silicon Valley Slack Software Software Development Spaced Repetition Speaking Startup Steve Jobs Study Teaching Team Building Tech Tech Ecosystems Technical Writing Technology Tools Transportation TV Series Twitter Typescript Uber UI Unknown User Experience User Testing UX vitals Voice Walmart Web Web Components Web Development Web Extensions Web Frameworks Web Performance Web Platform WWDC Yarn

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • November 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012

Search

Subscribe

RSS feed RSS - Posts

The right thing to do, is the right thing to do.

The right thing to do, is the right thing to do.

Dion Almaer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

 

Loading Comments...