From Fresh Air, on National Public Radio
From TED Talks To Taco Bell, Abuzz With Silicon Valley-Style 'Disruption'
By Geoff Nunberg
HBO's Silicon Valley is back, with its pitch-perfect renderings of the culture and language of the tech world — like at the opening of the "Disrupt" startup competition run by the Tech Crunch website at the end of last season.... "Disrupt" and "disruptive" are ubiquitous in the names of conferences, websites, business school degree programs and business book bestsellers.... It transcends being a mere buzzword....
These days, people just use "disruptive" to mean shaking things up.... Taco Bell has created a position called "Resident Disruptor," and not to be outdone, McDonald's is running radio ads describing its milkshake blenders as a disruptive technology. Well, OK, blenders really do shake things up. But by the time a tech buzzword has been embraced by the fast food chains, it's getting a little frayed at the edges....
The wonder is that "disruptive" is still clinging to life out there. There's a market in language, too, and jargon starts to lose its market share when its air of novelty fades. "Thought leader," "change agent" and "disruption," too — as the words get stale, they're in line to be disrupted themselves by scrappy new buzzwords that can once again convey an illusion of fresh thinking.....