That's good advice. We're interviewing 21 groups a day, and we have to converge on a decision in 10 minutes, so there is nothing more important than speaking plainly. Trying to decode marketing-speak exhausts us.
I think people use marketing-speak to seem more impressive, but on us it has the opposite effect. The phenomenon is very much like the artificial diction that inexperienced writers so often adopt, and which does nothing but get in their way.
I know it's bad form to quote oneself, but I can't put it better than this:
"When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance."
I think people use marketing-speak to seem more impressive, but on us it has the opposite effect. The phenomenon is very much like the artificial diction that inexperienced writers so often adopt, and which does nothing but get in their way.
I know it's bad form to quote oneself, but I can't put it better than this:
"When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance."
(http://paulgraham.com/taste.html)