We are living in an age of overestimation. Everywhere you will find this phenomenon. While applying for a job, a person would describe his/her hobby so passionately that it would sound like rocket science. Someone who likes baking and eating cake would say that s/he is passionately in love with the science of baking and its minute details. Adding that s/he enjoys the immersive process of preparing a cake and involves him/herself very deeply in taking notes of the result, particularly, the texture, taste and softness of the cake. Now, this is too much of a description of baking! But in the age of over-narration, this is what is considered a killing elucidation.

How does it help? To whom? That’s a big question. Rather than saying that s/he likes a walk in nature, write on social media that s/he feels rejuvenated while walking in the beautiful foliage of woods, and gets soul uplifted with the energy of the universe. Rather than writing what is one’s hobby in biodata, people write a longish description of rather a simple activity. It has become a fashion to overstate. Understatements are not appreciated. Boasting is fine and acceptable. Sometimes even rewarded.

To take advantage of this trend, many people come out with such commentary that impresses their bosses. Blinded by verbosity, employers are willing to give promotions and opportunities for training to those who can say more rather than to those who say less. Expression, even if meaningless and sometimes baseless, are the tools to impress superiors. The hospitality industry writes pages and pages about their services/products, without coming to the point. You might have noticed that nowadays even sales emails are so long that you scroll them down, often more than three or four times, to see what is the asking price.

This trend has one clear negative. If you don’t come to the point within a reasonable time, people lose their focus. Your presentation, which indulges into everything else than the point you want to make, is hardly seen by anyone in the room. Some of them have pre-decided questions and others ask because they don’t want to be seen as someone who has not paid attention. Finally, whatever they want to know, comes out from that brief question-answer session. Another disadvantage of this fashion is that those who want to focus on work do not get rewarded. But those who have the ability to talk about the work are preferred. It affects the industry sooner or later when they pay the price, but again it is those who know how to express get away with speculative analysis, and those who cannot speak get fired.

If you are the person who hires or manages people, make sure you know about this fashionable trend, so you don’t fall prey to it unless you decide to.