Words are important.

I’ve fallen into the habit of talking about “soft skills” —
meaning intra/interpersonal, communication, and collaboration
skills.

Pretty common usage, so I’ll cut myself some slack.

But I’m going to change the language I use.

There’s something about “soft skills” (or worse, “the touchy-feely stuff” or “the fluffy stuff”) that says “not important,” especially when you contrast it with “hard skills.”

So from now on: Collaboration skills or interpersonal skills replaces “soft skills” and technical skills rather than “hard skills.”

Project work is a social activity, and we won’t get very far without interpersonal and collaboration skills.