The Trouble With 'Just'

3 points · October 2026 · nettle-seed · 6 comments

Just is the most dishonest word in working English. Can you just. I just think. It's just a small change. Each time, the word is doing the same job: shrinking the thing it is attached to, so the person being asked will not notice the size of what is being asked.

The trouble is that it works. That is why we use it. The request that is just a small change gets done; the request that is described honestly — this is a change that will take your afternoon — gets pushed back. So just wins, and the afternoons go, and nobody said anything untrue, exactly.

I have stopped using it. Not as a rule — rules about words are for people who like rules more than words — but as a practice. When I catch myself about to say just, I ask what I am trying to shrink, and then I say the real size. This will take your afternoon. I have a strong opinion about this. This is a large change and I know it.

People say yes less often. They also stop saying yes and then not doing it, which was the actual cost of just all along.