Why I love the AFRSBPPAG

I love acronyms - especially when they are tied to incomprehensible buzzwords. When I changed jobs back in 2009, I had to ditch a whole set of acronyms and buzzwords and learn some new ones.

Does this mean that I'll never listen to a PMV webinar again, or that I will quit tracking what IBM does with its Rational product line, or that I'll purge my mind of all of the acronyms that I've gathered over the years - since, due to my change in duties, I am no longer involved with the CCB, FEC, NSDB, or SEPG; no longer write MRs; and no longer read TRSes, SAUs, PSCMPs, or other CIs?...

I already have some new acronyms that are creeping into my vocabulary (WIP it into shape!).

But I am not alone. Back in the 1960s, Philip Broughton declared his love for buzzwords also.

In 1968, Newsweek magazine published a short, but humorous article, How to Win at Wordsmanship. It described the "Systematic Buzz Phrase Projector," a concept developed by Philip Broughton, a (then) 63 year old worker in the US Public Health Service.

Now that computers can accept input rather than paper tape, the folks at Acronym Finder have recreated Broughton's work in an "Acronym Finder Random Systematic Buzz Phrase Projector Acronym Generator." The AFRSBPPAG can generate 1,000 different buzzword phrases, and their corresponding acronyms. Three examples:

Synchronized Organizational Programming (SOP)
Total Third-generation Projection (TTP)
Balanced Reciprocal Mobility (BRM)

So go play with it.