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A deep dive into double clicking

Seriously?

One of the fastest-spreading corporate buzzwords in recent years, “double-click” is both polarizing and pervasive. Particularly on Wall Street, the figure of speech is now being used as a shorthand for examining something more fully, akin to double-clicking to see a computer folder’s contents. Some, like Roy, find the idiom obnoxious or twee. Double-click defenders say the phrase encourages deeper thinking.

Double clicking has been around for nearly 40 years. Why is it just now being made into a buzzword? And what about Apple users? Do they use it too, only vaguely understanding why?

36 thoughts on “A deep dive into double clicking

  1. bbleh

    Doubleclicking on doubleclicking? From the Metadepartment of Meta?

    More entertaining than the Analysis and Speculation on Endless Media Analysis and Speculation that's on every other blog and news site.

  2. rick_jones

    If anything I would expect Apple users to have had the earliest exposure to double-clicking since we have had single-button mice from the general population point-and-click beginning.

      1. Crissa

        Technically a Xerox-Parc "invention"

        Apple users also have triple-click, which is select-whole-line. Super handy while editing, copying, etc. In the same context, we have double-click which is select-whole-word.

        1. horaceworblehat

          Double clicking was first popularized by Apple. They may have/have not invented it, but Xerox did not. With Xerox Star you clicked on a file/folder and then hit a dedicated open key to open the file. Similar if you wanted to move objects around where you used a dedicated move key. Apple popularized click-and-drag, too.

      1. Dana Decker

        The fact pattern of Kevin's performative wishcasting (adjacent to anti-anti-Apple) follows a through-line where we all end up leaning into the offramp where we can touch grass.

    1. justsomeguy05

      "Let's unpack that".
      Which became "popular" decades after packed numeric fields existed. I first heard that term around 2000 (used by Janeane Garofalo), and I was a Cobol programmer in the 70's - 90's.

  3. different_name

    I get a mental picture of an aggressive junior HR minion - you know, the sort who becomes offended by failure to display fake enthusiasm for corporate sing-alongs - trilling at a group of confused new call center employees to "double click on your packets now."

  4. Jasper_in_Boston

    Relatedly: long time Mac user here. I always equip mine with a left/right clickable track ball. Yes, you can left/right click with Mac OS. It's a nice combo.

      1. Jasper_in_Boston

        Right clicking on a link gives me "Open Link in New Tab; Open Link in New Window...etc." Right clicking on an app gives me variable outputs, depending on the app. Left clicking opens a link or app.

  5. geordie

    Kevin is confusing right clicking with double clicking. Anyway in the startup world that usage of double-click has been pretty prevalent for at least a decade. It gets a little tiresome when some people overuse it but as a synonym for "digging into that" it's perfectly fine.

    1. Altoid

      Ah, this potentially makes it a little more interesting-- a diffusion question. From startups to Wall Street to getting on nerves at the WSJ.

  6. Art Eclectic

    I was at a conference today and one of my fellow panelists used "double-click" in discussion. I nearly choked with laughter because of this post.

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