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Do you know Wittgenstein? No? I expected that—and I don’t hold it against you. People talk about the man far too little. So I will. And you may, if you’re willing, learn something useful.
There are sentences that sound smart but are empty. You hear them in business meetings, on panels, at dinners with supposedly important people. Nobody objects. Everyone nods. “Wow, that sounds clever,” you might think. But is it?
Imagine you said one of those supposedly clever things, and Wittgenstein sat next to you at the table. He would ask what you meant—exactly. You would repeat yourself. And then he would, out of sheer disinterest, leave the conversation and turn to someone else. Because Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who shaped modern philosophy of language and logic, and he once said, in essence: many of our big problems are not problems of the world, but problems of language.
Why this is also a status topic: real sovereignty doesn’t need verbal acrobatics. People with taste tend to dislike inflated language. Not out of snobbery, but out of intuition: if you can’t control your words, you usually can’t control your thoughts either.
Wittgenstein’s basic thesis: if you can’t say it clearly, you should probably leave it.
But why does Wittgenstein need to point this out? Because nonsense works socially:
It sounds like education without having to prove it.
It sounds like complexity without taking responsibility.
It leaves room for everyone to read something into it—and then feel intelligent.
Wittgenstein calls this the “bewitchment” of our intelligence by language.
Let’s get to the core: Wittgenstein’s cure—seven rules against hot air.
1. Clarify the context.
When someone uses a big word, it’s worth stopping for a second. Big words are things like “fulfilment,” “identity,” “clarity,” or “potential”—they sound important, but two people can mean completely different things. So ask immediately: “What do you mean by that, concretely?” and “Give me an example.”
2. Turn words into actions.
If someone says, “I’m looking for fulfilment,” ask:
“How would you notice—what would you do differently?”
If someone says, “That’s identity,” ask:
“What changes, concretely, once that’s clarified?”
3. Separate cleanly: what happens, what applies, what do you feel?
Three different levels you shouldn’t mix:
What happens? (fact)
What applies? (rule / expectation)
What do you feel? (feeling)
Precision takes drama out.
4. No half-sentences.
“Life is kind of …” — yes. And?
Say it as a clear sentence.
5. Stop pretty metaphors.
If someone speaks in images—“We need to sharpen the DNA,” for example—that’s first and foremost a vibe, not a statement. The translation must follow immediately: what does that mean in normal words, what should be different afterwards, and how would we know it worked? If no clear answer comes… well.
6. If nobody knows what it’s about: stop.
If a conversation runs long but nobody can say in one sentence what it’s actually about, you’ve drifted. Stop and ask: “What are we talking about—in one sentence?” And right after: “What exactly are we trying to clarify now?” Once that’s clear, you can continue sensibly.
7. Delete anything that only sounds good.
If a sentence makes an impression but clarifies nothing, it goes.
And yes: sometimes the best answer is silence. Not sulky—disciplined.
You don’t have to speak just because it’s quiet.
