For anyone seeking a definition of corporate bullshit, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has helpfully produced this distillation. On the topic of AI, he wrote a few months ago: “We need to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication and develop a new equilibrium in terms of our ‘theory of the mind’ that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools as we relate to each other.”
This jumble — a classic “word salad” that tosses abstract nouns about — conveys cleverness but means very little.
Before any Microsoft employee emails to defend their leader, let me suggest that, according to a recent study by Cornell University, if you are swayed by Nadella’s words you might be bad at your job. It found that workers receptive to corporate bullshit (defined as “misleadingly impressive” nonsense, or “noise masquerading as insight”) showed lower levels of analytic thinking and decision-making.