Naomi Gleit
The Same Vocabulary
Inspired by Naomi Gleit episode
Naomi Gleit's vocabulary alignment trick at Facebook explains why bedtime is chaos when parents use different words for the same things.
Naomi Gleit says Facebook's execution speed came from vocabulary alignment. Everyone used the same terms for the same metrics. No ambiguity. Shared vocabulary enabled shared understanding.
You and your partner are doing bedtime. You say "one more story" and mean one page. They say "one more story" and mean one book. Your toddler, who has apparently been training in contract law, spots this immediately. Now it's a negotiation. Now it's 9:47 PM and you're reading *Goodnight Moon* for the fourth time while making direct eye contact with your partner across the room in a way that will require couples therapy.
Shared vocabulary is not a nice-to-have. What does "gentle" mean when they're petting the dog? What counts as "helping" with the baby? What's "a little while" in toddler time—two minutes or the heat death of the universe? If you're not aligned, your kid will find every gap and drive a semi-truck through it.
