The Opposite of Attrition

TOPIC: Words mean things.

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about the blight of buzzwords, jargon, and douchespeak writ large.

Links for this episode:

• Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism popularized the term "thought-terminating cliché". This refers to a cliché that is a commonly used phrase, or folk wisdom, sometimes used to quell cognitive dissonance. Though the clichéd phrase in and of itself may be valid in certain contexts, its application as a means of dismissing dissent or justifying fallacious logic is what makes it thought-terminating.
• 5by5 | CMD+Space #90: The First Bar, with Merlin Mann
  This week Myke is joined by Merlin Mann, for an impromptu episode of CMD Space. They talk about scheduling your content to meet the needs of your audience, allowing your work to become 'yours', breaking the mould in your in environment, setting standards for your work and being a creative person in a corporate culture.
• Roderick on the Line - Ep. 104: "Talismans of a Dead Age"
  The Problem: John does not believe in The Cloud.
• Emerson, "The American Scholar," 1837
  Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings. But when the intervals of darkness come, as come they must, -- when the sun is hid, and the stars withdraw their shining, -- we repair to the lamps which were kindled by their ray, to guide our steps to the East again, where the dawn is. We hear, that we may speak. . . .
• Silver Surfer (2014-) #1 - Comics by comiXology
  "NEW DAWN". The universe is big. Bigger than you could ever imagine. And the SILVER SURFER, the lone sentinel of the skyways, is about to discover that the best way to see it... is with someone else. Meet the Earth Girl who's challenged the Surfer to go beyond the boundaries of the known Marvel U-- into the strange, the new, and the utterly fantastic!
• Betty (episode) - The Adventure Time Wiki. Mathematical!
  When a ritual changes Ice King back into Simon Petrikov, he enlists the help of Marceline, Finn, and Jake to recontact Betty in the past to tell her he's sorry for everything he has done.
• Showbot (Back to Work 165)
  Listener suggestions for this week's episode title.
• Roman à clef - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Roman à clef or roman à clé (French pronunciation: ?[??m?? a kle], Anglicized as /ro??m?n??kle?/), French for novel with a key, is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction.
• Jodorowsky's Dune - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• cat (Unix) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  The cat program is a standard Unix utility that concatenates and lists files. The name is an abbreviation of catenate, a synonym of concatenate.
• Gaslight (1944 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  

This week’s episode of Back to Work is kindly sponsored by:

• Squarespace (10% off with offer code, “TOOTHFAIRY”)
• Lynda.com (Start learning now with a 7-day free trial)