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by jgw 4844 days ago
Is anyone else getting really, really bored of the term "beautiful" being bandied around so much in this type of context? It has long ceased to mean anything at all.

I understand the importance of aesthetics in design, but it seems odd to show off the design under the banner "bright, beautiful stories" - surely that depends on the stories?

7 comments

Beautiful, amazing, and "super" are the three most overused and annoying words that the young hipster tech community uses.
"hipster" is the most overused and annoying word that the "complaining about things on the internet" community uses.
That's a really "crass" statement.
"Magical" and "revolutionary" if you're Steve Jobs or Phil Schiller.
Or Will Wright
Surely "Awesome" must take the top-spot
gorgeous is becoming pretty common too
that was an amazing observation!
to note carefully some data here, joonix said in his last post on HN: "G+, Android, and the Note II. A beautiful combination. Unfortunately, nobody I know uses G+ so I don't check much."
I never said I wasn't part of the community ;)
"Rich"
Gorgeous!
You don't want a ~beautiful, hand-crafted, pixel-perfect experience built with love~?
It's also a bit meaningless since no one ever wants to describe the thing they just designed as not being "beautiful".
I am! Truth and beauty are universal ideals. Overfixating on beauty may weigh against a simple but honest design

although, it's Facebook stories so how else can they improve them other than beautifying them? There is no other way to make the 19999th picture of your cat remain interesting.

As a side note, what I liked about Steve Jobs is that he almost never used over-the-top adjectives to describe the products he was demonstrating. Rather, he used words like "cool" and "neat." This made him sound a lot more credible and convincing.
That was funny!
That's interesting - it's actually Steve Jobs to whom I attribute this trend.

I'm not really an Apple guy, though, so it may be a misperception on my part.

I'm not sure how true that is, given that every Apple product is billed as "The best foo yet."
I don't think the word "best" has the same flair as "beautiful" or "gorgeous." It's actually a very simple word that conveys a very specific meaning. It's strong and perhaps even cocky, but I wouldn't say it's hipsterish or over-the-top.
Others have pointed out that he could be very superlative, so I'll just say that when he used words like "cool" or "neat," he was super-credible.

My favourite over-the-top Jobs-ism was "Insanely Great." "Wicked Fast" comes in second. He may have overused these terms, but some of Apple's products hit the mark. I really think the Macintosh SE and first iPhone ware insanely great products.

He started using the word "magical" in some of the ads & announcements if I recall correctly.
That was used to describe the iPad. I'd argue it was a magical device relative to what was on the market at the time.
The couple keynotes I've watched Steve Jobs used more superlatives than I thought necessary. And he used them over and over again.
I agree but why take particular issue with this bit of marketing speak? Wouldn't you say that almost all self-deployed marketing adjectives are disposable?
"Delightful" is the trend word I'm waiting to die