# I hate the word proactive.

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-word-proactive/371415
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 4, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-word-proactive/371415 "2006-09-04T17:44:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 3

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### Author: ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-word-proactive/371415/41 "2006-09-09T15:04:34Z")

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> [@The Eater in the Round](#):
>
> My boss uses the word _leverage_ like smurfs use the word _smurf_. People, places, companies, ideas, actions. He _leverages_ things against one another, _leverages_ things with other things, _leverages_ things around each other, _leverages_ things against themselves, _leverages_ things both for and against other things. And no he doesn’t work in credit or finance so he is not using that word for one of its only legitimate uses.
> 
> If I am ever in position where I do hiring or awarding of contracts I will immediately disqualify any applicant who uses the word _leverage_.

One time in the middle of a fairly informal meeting, I just said “Jeff, the word you want is USE. Not leverage, USE, dammit!” And he considered himself a programmer. Hah!

Leverage is actually a somewhat useful word, like incentivize - I can’t think of another word in English that expresses exactly the same meaning. It means using a small thing as either a lever or a fulcrum in order to get a significantly bigger result. It is not synomous with “use,” but managerese has made it that way, just as 20 years back, it insisted on using “utilize.” Apparently a word of one syllable is insufficiently impressive. :rolleyes:

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