Jargon

A running dictionary of the phrases that permeate the consulting world, and business more broadly.

  • bite of the apple

    a discrete chance or opportunity to achieve something, as in “we better polish our sales pitch for tomorrow Phil, I don’t think we’re going to have another bite of the apple”; more than one of these for a given individual…

  • goat rodeo

    a folksy and somewhat ridiculous term referring to a chaotic mess, used to put a jocular sheen on what may actually be a rather serious situation; getting one under control may necessitate herding cats, a tangentially-related bit of jargon in that…

  • boil the ocean

    to embark on an apparently impossible, wasteful or fruitless task, usually preceded by an exhortation not to, as in: “Let’s not boil the ocean here, an 80/20 should be enough”; this term suggests that the amount of effort to be…

  • ankle-bite

    to persistently remind someone or a group about his or her responsibilities in a mildly unpleasant way but without acrimony; evokes the behavior of a small yippy dog that nips at one’s heels annoyingly but is generally harmless, or a sheepdog…

  • mouse milking

    to embark on a task for which any potential output is far outweighed by the effort required to generate it, mouse milking is a far more cringe-inducing and unnecessarily baroque version of the more common phrase boil the ocean; users of this term generally assume…