Downgrades

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Greg Stolze. I’m calling from Aurora, Illinois.

Well, welcome to the program. How can we help you today?

Well, I wrote in with a couple of concepts that I thought needed words to describe them, both of which I’ve experienced in my personal life.

One is a repair or upgrade that leaves a device working worse than before.

Yeah, I can relate to that.

I’m thinking of this primarily in terms of computer software, where you get the new version and replace the one that worked just fine with one that doesn’t work as well or at all.

When I wrote in the question, it was before the election.

And, you know, it now occurs to me that there’s probably a, you know, a political aspect to this idea as well.

What do you mean when you elect someone, you oust the incumbent and you put somebody new in office and they actually perform worse than the last guy?

Well, I’m sure that could never, ever happen.

Except in theory.

Democracy is perfect, isn’t it?

Do you have words for this, though?

Oh, no.

Oh, okay.

No.

If I had coined them myself, I wouldn’t have bothered you with it.

Oh, to share those so we can spread them far and wide.

We do have that capability.

I’ve got nothing.

The idea that when we think we’re going to fix something or, actually, it’s not even just fix, when we think we’re going to improve it, sometimes it’s a setback.

And boy, do I know it from the software world.

I bet.

Yeah, Greg, I did IT work for the longest time, and we inevitably called it a downgrade, you know, an unintentional downgrade, but a downgrade nonetheless.

Just, you know, put the new version of Microsoft Office on there.

It’s supposed to do X.

It’s supposed to do Y.

And it turns out it actually takes away A, B, and C and doesn’t do X and Y all that well.

Oh, that’s great.

So it’s an oops grade rather than upgrade, right?

Yeah, something like that.

Very nice.

Yeah, oops grade.

Or maybe we could do something with the root of new Coke or clear beer, you know, those ideas that just tank.

Yeah, new Coke, one of the greatest tanks of all time in terms of a new product just not really working.

Yeah.

So I’ve new Coke-ed my software.

I like that.

And it’s got an echo of nuke in it, too, which is a plus, right?

And everyone will know exactly what that means, I think.

I think probably so.

I new coked my…

What else do you do where you think you’re improving, but you’re actually setting yourself back a couple decades?

They new coked that legislation, but good.

Yeah.

I like it.

And, you know, I have had that with dictionaries where I bought the new edition, and it turned out it was a step back from the previous one because they undid a lot of good things that I like, took out tables or took out whole big sections of it or made it a lot smaller for no particular reason.

I don’t know.

It happens a lot.

I’m liking this, you guys.

New Coke.

I New Coked it.

Martha, you’ve coined a word.

Greg, do you think you can use it?

Oh, I’m sure I will at some point.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Well, please spread it around.

Help us.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Thanks for calling.

Thanks, Greg.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Bye.

What are your words for these concepts?

If you think you’re fixing something or making it better, but you’re actually setting yourself back, give us a call, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.