So, opening a sentence with 'so' started with programmers and engineers
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 17th 2010 3:03PM
posted June 17th 2010 3:03PM
So, here's a great piece by Anand Giridharadas in the New York Times on using "so" to start sentences -- a practice that apparently started with engineers and programmers in Silicon Valley in the 90s, and something Microsoft employees also claim started with them. Obviously we use it a ton at Engadget -- at this point we're all riffing on each other, but I know I picked it up from San Francisco-based Ryan Block when I first started. Interesting to see how small parts of tech culture like this are influenced by so many variables -- Giridharadas says "so" makes it easier for people of different backgrounds and languages to communicate, because it's a catch-all transition that almost always works, implying a understanding of what's come before. I rather like that.
So what? :D
@Prestidigitator I see what you did there.
@CoyM
SO?
@Prestidigitator
The diaper club needs to realize this "phrasing" has been around long before the 90s.
So, like I can't stand it when someone starts sentences or speech with "So."
So what?
SO! F$%*ING! WHAT ? ? ? ?
Love,
James Hetfield
@rutter9 Exactly. Just read the last few chapters in "Return of the King"... Every paragraph begins with "So...."
Seriously this is the most bizarre claim I've ever heard...I'm pretty certain people started sentences with "So" long, long, long before the 90's and computer engineers and programmers. This is just plain silliness.
Ryan Block. :'(
A legend among mortal bloggers.
You will always be remembered
@DefPoet
you could just bookmark gdgt.com
So, this is dumb. I've heard that phrasing of words before the 90's.
Say it ain't so.
@inimicus You're doing it wrong.
@Frawley
So, say it ain't.
so, this alt version of engadget is not so hot
So like totally gag me with a spoon - socal valleygirl circa early eighties
"So, a priest, a rabbi, and a pastor are in a row-boat ..."
I'm sure this was commonplace long before the 90s.
@jimallman I think it was just "A priest, a rabbi, and a pastor walk into a bar and the bartender asks: 'Is this a joke?'"..
@gargle
So a pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel stuck down his pants...
@glamajamma
The bartender asks, "Where are you buccaneers?"
The pirate yells back, "They on my buckin' HEAD!"
I used to do that in my writing assignments in grade 8 in 96. Microsoft stole it from me.
@Bung I graduated, college, in '97. You're too young to be looking at gadgets and the historical reasoning for the use of proper grammar, let alone claim that MS stole anything from you.
@gadgetOCD
Hey man, if they can use that kind of logic, so can I.
@Bung
so was my idea.
I start my sentences with So entirely too much.
I'm a DBA
this reminds me of one time on the internet some guy claimed he invented 'lol'
so cool :)
"San Franciso"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyc37aOqT0
So true.
- Progammer
I've noticed in the last few years how common it is to end sentences with "so..." and then a shrug of the shoulders or "so... y'know."
@meshcount
I do that all the time. I guess I'm just too lazy to finish my thought so.... ya know....
The story I heard out of Microsoft is they had the problem with employees / engineers constantly inserting "um" and "ah" into their conversations so they trained them to say "so" instead.
The way Ryan Block says it makes it sound like he's being dismissive of the person who spoke before him. At least that's what I get from the gdgt podcast.
This is an irritating habit usually accompanied by the person talking at you with their eyes closed and a generally arrogant attitude. It's not something to be celebrated -- it's a shortcoming in the ability of engineers to relate to other people.
When people start talking to me with the word "So" it makes me feel like there's some part of the conversation that I've missed or that I was expected to be aware of.
I flat out do not believe that the origination of 'so' as a starter for a sentence was as stated in this article.
@savagemike
For instance, here is an example from a page out of book published in 1918 apparently.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Z6U-AAAAYAAJ&dq=So&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q=So&f=false
Was there a lot of early programming going on in silicon valley or microsoft or anywhere else really in 1918?
@savagemike
'So' has historically been used to start sentences, but only as an adverb, e.g. "so they went" or "so it came to pass." This is something different: using 'so' as a replacement for "well."
Might not have originated in a Microsoft boardroom but it's definitely modern usage.
Just like words "sure" or "okay" are for Engadget... but who can blame them.
@silvestre And, don't forget, iPhone.
So what, I totally went there...
so, this article is full of so many holes you can tell it comes from a completely disconnected person trying desperately to reach out to the gadget generation..
1) "immigrant filled technology workplaces" WHAT? This is not an industry that has *any* trouble communicating since most of the "immigrants" in the field speak better english, with far better grammar than native speakers.
2) So, XXX has been around since *at least* the 70s, and likely before that.. this is not like .. you know.. like.. replacing umm in the 80s .. hell perhaps our fearless writer of NYT crap should go watch a few 80s movies.. where the phrase was spread around just as much as it is today.. and if anything was the source of its current popularity it is *not* geek culture..
Yes my friends, the actual source of its current popularity is Office Space.. it doesn't take a NYT writer making shit up as he goes along when the bulk of the world was NOT in diapers in the 90s
@jabbathewocket So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.
@jabbathewocket You're right, the usage has been around since before the 70s. I am currently reading a book written in the late 60s that uses the "So, ..." sentence construction. This theory is bunk.
Real nerds change the subject with no warning whatsoever.
So, like.... the French have been starting sentances with "Donc" (which means "So") since before reconds began. Not as a technology thing, but as a a way to wrestle control of the converation. It's nothing new...
I imagine the phrase "So what?" (which has been around forever) was preceded by using "so" at the beginning of sentences. I imagine it was originally said, "So... what?"
I for one have been starting sentences in this manner since well before the 90's, and my wife hates it. But, perhaps coincidentally, I AM a programmer (the Seattle kind, not the Silicon Valley kind).
I am very sure this started much earlier. I have been suing the "so" to start sentences for well over 30 years here in Singapore. And I definitely did not started it, so what's the big deal of claiming that?!