Validate This

Kevin Maney gags: There must be a Stanford MBA class titled "Euphemisms 101." This would be where future CEOs are taught what to say when the truth more or less sucks. And one of my fave-o-rites is when a pioneering start-up suddenly sees a big hairy competitor with tons of money and monstrous industry clout bearing down on it. This is when the CEO declares that he or she "welcomes the competitor" to the market, and is grateful that the big respected newcomer has "validated the concept." This is always just before the CEO says the new entrant will help "grow the whole pie."

Such euphemisms can be helpful because they prevent the CEO from saying what he or she really wants to say, which is, "Holy f---, we're toast!"

Example of the moment: I'm reading The New York Times story about Google's just-announced product called Lively. It lets users chat in a virtual kind of environment, making themselves into cartoonish avatars and decorating their spaces with things like YouTube videos.

As it turns out, Lively runs smack into a start-up called Vivaty -- which just launched on Tuesday. (Bummer!) Here's a sentence from the story:

Keith McCurdy, Vivaty's chief executive and a former executive at the game giant Electronic Arts, said Google's entry was a validation of the concept, and said Vivaty could get more traction by putting its virtual worlds on every Web site -- even those controlled by Google's rivals.