Words.
They're pretty useful.
There are authors who express such sentiment more eloquently, with lightning-littered analogies, but, for the sake of brevity, "pretty useful" is adequate.
Now, contrary to the article title, this isn't actually a confession. If it were, it would register as perhaps one of the worst. Beaten only narrowly by the revelation "includes letters".
No, the confession is that I, like all copywriters, and despite their pretty useful nature, irrationally hate loads of words.
Here are some examples.
Leverage.
Hate.
Synergy.
Hate.
And a special two-for-one,
Digital Transformation.
Hate.
Hate.
And it's not just corporate buzzwords that send shudders through the shoulders.
Phlegm. Octopuses. Egregious.
Unnecessary letters. Worst plural ever. It should be pronounced eh-greggy-shuss.
So, yes, words. They're pretty useful. But some of them are truly despicable. So next time you tell a copywriter to re-write a phrase, be cautious you aren't asking for a hated alternative.