Making the Easy Hard

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there, my name is Julia. I’m calling from Norfolk, Virginia.

Hey, Julia, welcome to the show.

What can we do for you?

Thanks. So I was talking with a co-worker the other day, and we got stumped on trying to find a word.

We were working on a project, and a co-worker of ours had worked on it.

When he received it, it was a pretty simple project.

And then by the time we got to it, it had kind of gotten all messed up.

And so we’re trying to figure out if there’s a word to describe a person who takes something pretty simple and really overcomplicates it and makes it a lot more difficult and more time consuming than it needs to be, or if there’s a word to describe the action of doing that.

Oh, I know those people.

Can you go into more detail about what kind of project it was?

It was just like a review of some work that he had to go through.

We do these all the time and so he just it’s a pretty straightforward process we do all the time.

And in just going through that process he just kind of ended up like just going down a bunch of rabbit holes and and kind of just elongating the process in a lot of ways that just made it just made it take a lot longer for him and then for us to go back and to fix it oh yes I think Grant and I both know that experience.

This reminds me of the people who at the end of a long meeting when the speaker says, does anyone have questions?

They have questions.

And you’re like, no, no, you don’t.

You don’t have questions.

Put that hand down.

That was rhetorical.

We’ve been here four hours.

Especially today with all the video meetings now.

Right?

Yeah.

That’s not a question.

That’s a statement anyway.

Shush.

Mute yourself.

I like your word elongated.

I’ve never heard anybody describe it that way, but that’s a good one.

It just stretches out, right?

How do you describe these people, Martha?

Do we want a verb or an adjective or just mean looks?

I tell you, I’m thinking of that acronym KISS.

Do you use that in your workplace, Julia?

KISS for keep it simple, stupid?

I think I have heard that before, but I’ve never used it.

Yeah, well, you know, the opposite of KISS, keep it simple, stupid, the opposite of KISS is kick me, which is keep it complicated, keep me employed.

I mean, that’s usually for somebody who’s doing make work for themselves so they look more productive than, you know, they’re worth their pay.

But I don’t know if that was the same kind of situation, though.

I mean, was this person trying to justify his paycheck or was it a matter of it just got out of control?

I think more the latter, that it got out of control or just a lack of understanding of what actually needed to happen.

And just instead of kind of stopping and thinking or asking questions, just taking it in the wrong direction.

Right. Down the rabbit hole.

I’ve got some verbs for that.

You might say that somebody like this befouled the situation or he bemuddled it.

Maybe bemuddle is a better one.

He’s a bemuddler.

A rarer word is embrangle, sometimes spelled with an E at the beginning or an I at the beginning.

Embrangle.

That sounds like something you’d see on The Simpsons.

Yeah, you create conflict disorder and confusion.

You might also use, particularly if you’re involved with vehicles, you know, to mire or bog down.

It’s kind of to sink into mud or to trap a vehicle.

You mire it or imbog to put something in a bog.

But I like imbrangle just because it’s kind of fun to say.

He’s an imbrangler.

Yeah, imbrangler.

I was going to suggest complexify because that’s a legitimate word that you find in the dictionary, as are these others that you’re mentioning.

But I do like the element that Grant is bringing in with a word like imbrangle.

There’s an element of fun there, too, or fun making fun of the other person that complexify doesn’t really carry.

Yeah, I like how it sounds kind of like entangle, too, which sort of reminds me of what happened because everything got all sort of messed up or jumbled up in the process.

Well, Julia, good luck with work.

Let us know how it turns out.

And if you get those embrangler brass plaques made for his door, let us know how he reacts to it.

Yeah, maybe you could change the job title.

Take care now.

Be safe.

I like that.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, maybe I’ll change my email signature line to Chief in Brangler.

Chief in Brangler.

Co-in Brangler.

Co-in Brangler.

I think it’s Co-in Brangler.

What are you saying about me?

Yes, it’s true.

Oh, come and Brangle with us, 877-929-9673, or complexifyyourlifewords at waywordradio.org, or bemuddletheworld @wayword on Twitter.