Platitudes

Good things come to those who wait.

Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

It is what it is.

When you hear a phrase like these, do your eyes roll? These are generally overused sayings that probably once contained profound wisdom, but now they’ve lost nearly all of this power.

In fact, you’re most likely to hear one of these platitudes whenever someone wants a conversation to end. A little bit of social unease or some kind of emotional distress can being triggered by a conversation, and then one person drops one of these little quieting bombs onto the wordscape.

Try listening out for one of these the next time you witness a conversation one person wants to end.

What’s happening here? Why does uttering one of these trite phrases allow a conversation to end?

One way to think about this is that one person’s discomfort is handed off to the other person. Person one might ask, “When do you think you’ll get that raise?” Instantly, person two is uncomfortable and insecure, so to counter th…