Another Reason to Avoid Jargon

Another good reason to avoid jargon, shibboleths, and technical terms with colleagues and prospects. It makes you sound untrustworthy, even criminal. Listeners naturally wonder, “What are you hiding behind those obscure references, technical terms, and acronyms?” For good reason.

The word jargon originally meant unintelligible noises resembling speech, like the twittering of birds. But early on, jargon became the name of the peculiar speech used by criminal groups.

–Professor Heller-Roazen
Learn to Talk in Beggars’ Cant
The New York Times

 
See also, Misunderstood Jargon, on this blog.