Etym.From a literal maritime taunt, recycled by management consultants in the 1990s as a pithy metaphor for impractical mandates, see R. Camden, Corporate Lexicons, 1998.

A rhetorical maneuver that reframes a solvable issue as an all-encompassing, impractical project to obscure specifics, stall decisions, and share blame.

'We are not going to boil the ocean this quarter', Q3 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.Emerged from 2010s Silicon Valley strategy decks as a compact imperative for execution, popularized in venture memos; see L. Chen, "Momentum Language in Venture Capital", 2017, Pacific Business Review.

A leadership slogan that permits accelerated delivery of visible artifacts while deferring hard trade-offs, rigorous review, and accountability.

'Ship quickly, document later' - All-Hands Notes, April 2019

Etym.from L. optimus, 'best,' later anglicized as optimize into managerial parlance circa 2008 by a consultancy associate who needed a verb implying progress without accountability, see Halpern, Corporate Lexica 2011.

A verb used to reframe cuts, delays, or metric gymnastics as intentional improvement.

'We will optimize retention by Q4' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 12