I don’t think “offended” is a fair assessment of how people react to these types of filler words. I think we tend to forget, especially after reading and writin

I don’t think “offended” is a fair assessment of how people react to these types of filler words. I think we tend to forget, especially after reading and writing computer languages, that our human languages are meant to be read and understood by other humans and our words can have a powerful effect on others. As the blog post suggests, this does seem to come out of a place of excitement to share knowledge, but it can come across as off-putting or disingenuous if, for example, something described as “simple” is not. Regardless of how fragile others are and conversely how tough you think you are, we are all affected by the way things are worded, with each of us carrying our own baggage and differing understanding of specific connotations. This is, however, not about adding bumpers to our language so that nobody feels hurt, it’s about communicating concepts and instructions in universally clear language that is not muddied with fluff or superlatives. In other words, it’s a UX problem. For the record, I don’t disagree that people seem to be offended easily. Often the least charitable meaning is assumed and people escalate/react accordingly. Many individuals have become trained to fixate so heavily on micro aggressions that the context and tone of messages is lost and these people become difficult to interact with and a cycle of misery ensues where they find themselves surrounded by people who only walk on eggshells when communicating.