Last week I watched the movie The Guilt Trip. Aside from having Barbra Streisand, who plays Seth Rogen’s mother, it documents the great odyssey which Seth Rogen’s character undertakes: from jargon-filled scientist trying to sell his invention to smart scientist finding out what will sell his innovation, and successfully doing so. (hint, it’s rarely the science that sells it).
This study shows that status is at play here: less jargon when you feel like you have status – they call it compensatory conspicuous communication.
Here’s the clip of Seth Rogen’s final sales pitch in the movie.
And here is a venture capitalist interpreting the pitch above and saying why the first part didn’t work.
Here’s some excellent jargon, in case you ever have need of it. The video below shows an actor reading it out loud.
