When is it going to stop? Honestly. It makes my skin crawl every time I hear 110 percent, as in, I’m going to give 110 percent. Or we expect you to perform at 110 percent. Or, please don’t fire me, Mr. Trump, I gave 110 percent.

Make it stop. If I were Mr. Trump, which I’m clearly not, I would fire anybody immediately that said 110 percent. In fact, that’s the best reason I can think of for being Mr. Trump and nearly worth the terrible hair. I don’t really want the money. I don’t really want all that upper class hoopla. But I want that power. “Mark, would it be alright, if I hear somebody say ‘110 percent’, if I just pull that person aside and say, ‘You’re fired, you ignoramus’?”

When I was a kid, a very little kid, my older brother, C., was doing math homework and there was something that said a tree had grown 110 percent and he was complaining that that wasn’t possible. But even then I knew that that was possible, that 110 percent was possible when it comes to tree growth or return on investment.

My maximum capacity at anything is clearly 100 percent. But it’s pointless to talk about my maximum capacity in a percentage in the first place because I don’t really know my maximum output, insomuch as I haven’t measured it. It remains altogether unclear how I should measure effort. But regardless of all of that, my maximum capacity – whatever that might be — is 100 percent. It’s clear to everybody isn’t it that a person can’t give 110 percent? So why do people keep saying it? Intelligent, educated, motivated people.

Make it stop it. If you suffer the need to say it, I implore you, please stop. Here are a few ideas. First, think about a gas tank. Picture it. When it’s absolutely full, that’s 100 percent. If you fill the gas tank to 110 percent, you’ve wasted the 10 percent which spills over and pollutes the ground. Or if you’re not a visual thinker, try math. When you find yourself about to say 110 percent, since 110 percent is an arbitrary fraction, force yourself to say eleven-tenths, as in “I don’t know what you’re talking about boss, I really feel like I deserve my raise, ask anybody and they will tell you I gave it eleven-tenths.” Eleven-tenths means the same thing as 110 percent but is more obviously awkward and stupid. That might make you stop.

And, to the high school gym coaches, to the Math Club coaches, to the MBA professors, to the corporate bosses. Please help. First, don’t say it. And second, don’t tolerate it.

And to Bill Gates, when somebody types ‘110 percent’ or ‘110%’, please have Word or Outlook say: “Are you sure you don’t mean 100 percent? 99 percent of the time, 110 percent is wrong and stupid.”

Most regular people are probably thinking: Get over it. But it’s just so wrong, so stupid, and so pervasive. And pervasive is the most annoying kind of stupid.

SS