Pet Peeves

I have a few pet peeves.  This one is regarding dumb/stupid terms/bad phrases.

This particular post was brought on when I had to order business cards for a new Director at work; an IoT Director.

Now picture this printed on his business cards.

Mr. John Smith

Director of the Internet of Things 

Never.Gonna.Happen.  The acronym will always be used.  Unless you're me.  Ordering business cards and this is your title.    

I mean really?   "the Internet of Things?"  Things?!   Here are some synonyms for the word "thing".    

• stuffstar
• baggagestar
• chattelsstar

• clothesstar
• conditionsstar
• dudsstar

• effectsstar
• gearstar
• goodsstar

• possessions

None of these words really fit.  Why didn't he (Kevin Ashton) think this phrase through?   Do a little research maybe.   At the very least check some synonyms to see if the word worked, or if there was a better word to use.   These words listed above, were around in 1999 when he coined the phrase 'the Internet of Things'.  Maybe he was having a conversation with a friend while drunk (or high) and trying to explain the internet to him.  

But I digress....

Let's get back to business cards.    At the company I work for, titles on business cards are spelled out.  If they weren't all spelled out, we would be seeing cards like:

Jack Whomever
Director of P                           (Director of Purchasing)

Sara X
Director of S&M                    (Director of Sales and Marketing)

Joe Shmo
Director of SCMDL               (Director of Supply Chain Management, Distribution, & Logistics)

If you use acronyms, nobody will know what the hell these people do.

You know it's a bad term/coin of phrase when a grown businessman is embarrassed to put the words  "the Internet of Things" on his business cards.   I can't blame him.