an unspecified but discrete amount of effort or energy, taken from the word used generically to indicate the power of a computer processor, which is typically measured in cycles per second (hertz), each one representing a single operation; an example usage: “I wouldn’t burn too many cycles on that analysis Phil, let’s just 80-20 it and move on”; this term is often employed with respect to lower-value tasks; used when you wish to analogize human beings to a server farm

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a phrase used to indicate one’s suspicion that a particular analysis or element of logic is faulty and needs to be revised or discarded entirely, generally used as a conciliatory preface that nevertheless cannot avoid ominous undertones, as in “I think we should dig in a little on your chart there and check if those numbers are really accurate”; similar to double click, deep dive, drill down, pressure test, and unpack, indicating the diversity of ways in which jargon users attempt to elide the essential nature of their request, which boils down to “do more work”

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the element that makes some larger or overarching thing compelling, valuable, or otherwise interesting, as in “Sure we’ve got local sales experts in each region, but our market intelligence is really the jam in the sandwich”; suggests that without said jam, what remains would be as unappetizing as a bread sandwich; see also peanut butter, entirely unrelated in sense but noteworthy in that if deployed at the same time one could create the PB&J of jargon

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something which appears superficially fit for purpose but is in reality entirely unsuited to the task; used in reference to a plan, concept, idea, etc., that has not been adequately thought through or is being rushed out to satisfy some pressing deadline; suggests that the first attempt to test something live will immediately lead to messy or catastrophic failure; this phrase is chiefly used in areas of British influence; similar in concept to Potemkin village, a term from the world of government and politics that references deliberate deception

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an oblique way of saying “I have no idea what’s going on here”; used to describe the opacity of processes or logic on which some outcome is based, as in “It’s tough to say what the real drivers of growth are—they’re a black box”; can be used when multifactorial and interdependent causes and effects render the tracing of each one impossible, as with the global economy, weather patterns, etc.; related to a lot of moving parts, which similarly alludes to complexity but without the unknowability of a black box

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to perform an action that is likely to provoke a severe reaction from the one being metaphorically touched, a person who wields meaningful power; akin to entering the den of a hibernating bear and rousting it from its pleasant slumber, upon which it will direct its fury at being disturbed towards the intruder; this term can be deployed to caution someone against heedless behavior, as in: “We know how sensitive the boss is about uptime so let’s not bring up the website outage again, we don’t want to poke the bear”

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a discrete item of work that will be hard to achieve, such as a business challenge whose solution will be burdensome to find or a question that will be difficult to answer; used to draw attention to effort that, while not precisely defined, is expected to be significant; calls to mind a macadamia or walnut whose edible portion can only be accessed through the use of a specialized cracking implement; similar to tough putt and tough row to hoe, all three of which focus on difficulty but with a lighter tone so as not to be seen as grumbling

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a descriptive phrase used to indicate that a situation is complex, requires attention in multiple areas simultaneously, or has several interdependencies; can evoke an intricate piece of machinery or, for those situations that have arisen more haphazardly, a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption, as in: “I’ve been swamped trying to manage this project, it has so many moving parts”; similar to have a lot of balls in the air, which is employed when juggling is the preferred metaphor; related to black box, which refers to something of such complexity that at best it can be imperfectly understood

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an obscure term meaning to establish the boundaries of an analysis, evoking the image of rolling out a map on a large surface and then fixing its corners in place, demarcating the area within which deeper work is to take place; this narrowing or limiting of potential scope is helpful to avoid boiling the ocean, as in “Before we start the country deep dives we should talk to the executive team to pin the edges”; see also timebox, which refers to a similar concept focused on duration rather than quantity of work performed

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the most essential or complex step required to accomplish a specific objective, and upon which the entire form depends, as in “I know these other IT systems are important but getting the core ERP right is the long pole in the tent”; the sense of this term would have been more readily apparent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during which traveling carnivals, various entertainments, revival meetings, etc., drew large crowds and required the setting up of large temporary tents whose roof would be held up by a single central pole, the failure of which would render the whole structure unusable; as with much jargon this term has a heritage in U.S. military and political lingo

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