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The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

I had joked about this at the PDC, and Benjamin points out the same.  The use of the word “so“ at the beginning of sentences seems growingly pervasive within Microsoft. From the TechEd and PDC presenters to interactions with development teams and field employees, more and more employees seem to use the word “so“ as an unnatural beginning to a sentence.  [Update: Bryant Likes pointed this out back in April as well!]

I caught myself doing it twice last night.

Think I am exaggerating?  Here are the transcripts from the most recent episodes of MSDN TV.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/seminar/shared/asp/transcript.asp?url=/msdntv/episodes/en/20040506sqlserverlp/manifest.xml

http://msdn.microsoft.com/seminar/shared/asp/transcript.asp?url=/msdntv/episodes/en/20040415adonetpc/manifest.xml

http://msdn.microsoft.com/seminar/shared/asp/transcript.asp?url=/msdntv/episodes/en/20040429clrkc/manifest.xml

http://msdn.microsoft.com/seminar/shared/asp/transcript.asp?url=/msdntv/episodes/en/20040422winfsmd/manifest.xml

http://msdn.microsoft.com/seminar/shared/asp/transcript.asp?url=/msdntv/episodes/en/20040408visualckg/manifest.xml

Published Tuesday, June 29, 2004 4:11 PM by kaevans
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Comments

# re: The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 4:18 PM by Gabe A
I have to admit I've noticed this on your Longhorn and MSDN episodes as well. Not trying to be too judgemental but when you answer a question and start your sentence with "so ..." it sounds very isolationist; as if you were just continueing your sentence or line of thought instead of responding to the person.

Just my 2 cents.

Gabe

# 'So' Is 'Actually' not 'Performant' but Do We Need it for 'Hygiene'?

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 5:02 PM by WebLog of Ken Cox [MVP]

# re: The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 5:16 PM by Robert Scoble
Heh. I've noticed myself doing this and have deliberately tried to avoid doing it.

# re: The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 5:32 PM by Gabe A
me too :(

# RE: The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 5:45 PM by Bryant Likes
I've always found this to be funny. I posted about this myself after watching some Channel 9 videos.

http://blogs.sqlxml.org/bryantlikes/archive/2004/04/16/529.aspx

# Verbal tics

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 8:45 PM by JD on MX
Verbal tics: Kirk Allen attends a conference, and notices that many sentences seem to start with "So...." (One fun thing is to watch TV in a language you don't understand, so you don't get distracted by the plot and can...

# re: The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 11:32 PM by Michael Earls
So...I think I have it figured out.

http://www.cerkit.com/cerkitBlog/PermaLink,guid,fedfe5ba-cbf8-48b5-8011-0602900df7e4.aspx

# re: The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 10:56 AM by Luciano Evaristo Guerche
<strong>So</strong>, what can Microsoft do about? :-)

# So, John Dowdell adds his 2 cents

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 4:13 PM by TrackBack
So, John Dowdell adds his 2 cents

# Virtual Server 2005 and XPSP2 RC2

Thursday, July 01, 2004 1:25 PM by Bryant Likes's Blog

# re: So... Um... Hotmail

Friday, February 04, 2005 9:46 AM by Omar Shahine's WebLog

# Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation

Saturday, March 12, 2005 10:54 AM by Kirk Allen Evans' Blog

# Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 7:48 AM by Kirk Allen Evans' Blog

# Microsoft and Collective Illiteracy

Friday, February 23, 2007 2:38 PM by Kirk Allen Evans' Blog

It's getting worse. I don't know who started it, but I am determined to end it. I seek to end the continued

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