The Precision Word
Replace vague filler nouns and verbs with the one exact word that carries the weight.
Vagueness is a tax on your listener's attention, and they always pay it grudgingly.
Words like 'thing', 'stuff', 'good', 'really', and 'very' are placeholders. They hold a seat for a better word that never arrived.
Precision does not mean long. 'Very tired' is two words and vague. 'Drained' is one word and exact.
Before you speak, ask: what is the shape of this idea? Then choose the word with that shape.
Example
Weak: 'It was a really big change that affected a lot of people.' Strong: 'It was an upheaval. Two hundred families felt it by Friday.'
- Kill intensifiers: very, really, actually, basically.
- Prefer one exact word over two approximate ones.
- Concrete nouns beat abstract nouns in spoken form.
Speak for 45 seconds about your craft without using: thing, stuff, good, very, really.
Focus: Filler elimination under pressure · 45s