May Be, I'll Probably Try To ...

Have you been in a status/pre-sales call in IT service companies? If so, you might have noticed one thing - that words like "may be", "probably", "try to" are used very often. (Few years back, I once deliberately counted the number of "probably" in one of the calls, and it was 17 in that 1-hour call). What's more, they are not used in proper context, but only as fillers. Let's give these words a collective name - words of ambiguity.

These words are meant to be used in situations where we don't have clarity. Not having clarity is not crime per se, but saying something that has a clear meaning and making use of these words is "probably" not good. ;)

Let's assume I'm saying "I'll send you a mail by 5 pm". It has a clear meaning. But saying "I'll probably send you a mail by 5 pm" is irksome. Why? Because:

• I'm not convinced myself that what I said will happen.
• It might give me a comfort feeling that I can't be held responsible for what I said, but for the listener, the expectation is that I'll take responsibility for what I said. (Ultimately, it's obvious that I'm responsible for what I said despite my use of "probably".)

So, in situations where it's not apt, let's probably try to avoid the use of these words.