The Hack Job

This week, a thought on a strong candidate for word of the decade.

There are a few words vying for word of the decade; maybe “authentic” or “trust” get your vote, but “hack” is probably right up there.

Surely it should be, whether we are hacking growth, our lives, or some nefarious delinquent is preventing us from buying Range Rovers or Marks & Spencer sandwiches. We all seem to be hacking something, are being encouraged to hack, or are doom-scrolling for the hacks.

In our passion for the hack, my thought this week is whether we are actually just doing a half-arsed job as we reach for the easy button?

“Hack”, in British English (according to the Cambridge dictionary), is also defined as:

“a journalist (= writer for newspapers or magazines) whose work is low in quality or does not have much imagination”.

And Merriam-Webster has a similar definition:

“working for hire, especially with mediocre professional standards”

Hmmmm……

Mediocre and lacks imagination.

I’ve gone 150 words before saying AI, but it sounds a bit like generative AI to me, the primary enabler of the marketing hack.

And, unless you are sitting in the dark in your parents’ basement, surrounded by pizza boxes, in a hoodie stained with Red Bull, would you want to be described as a hacker?

That’s my thought this week.