The World of Acronyms
I can never understand what is wrong with the Americans and their obsession with acronyms. My first encounter with them was years ago, in an inter-company board meeting. Dressed casual as previously instructed, we were sitting around a big U-shaped table. At the open edge of the table was a screen on which various slides about development, financials and various stuff would be shown.
The gentleman, well, supposedly higher ranking than the rest of us took the microphone and a parade of acronyms began. One after the other, non-stop, a myriad of acronyms were being shot at us, without showing any sign of mercy or regret: kpi, pnl, bs, pso, tsr, roi, abc, def.. The list was long. Do not get me wrong. I knew what he was talking about, that bs stood for balance sheet, not bullshit for example, but the scene was so surreal that it was like we were orbiting the Earth in a shuttle, and all those acronyms were floating in the cabin at zero gravity. At one point, I almost opened my mouth to catch and swallow one (Now you know what goes on inside those board meetings; making thousands per hour while you are sweating for a few bucks is not so easy). I poured myself a cup of coffee, instead.
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