HTU TLA's and FLA's

I work in technology for a great company, Cisco (CSCO) - and no we don't sell food, and from the beginning of my career I bet I have dealt with more acronyms than any other career path or profession (save maybe government and medical).

Long ago, my friend and former roommate, Jason Steele coined a phrase for these acronyms. He called them "Hard To Understand Three Letter Acronym's and Four Letter Acronym's" and to be appropriate in the world of techno geeks we ran around with we shortened that up to HTU TLA's and FLA's.

Over the years this has never quite caught on, but I am now toying with the idea of putting this saying on a t-shirt along with one of my other friends favorite sayings which I won't disclose here just in case we decide to trademark it (we have been threatening to do this for 2 years).

What I find funny is that when you use a TLA or FLA how people just nod like they know what you are saying. Are we too proud to ask someone to speak plain English anymore? What I find even funnier is that I put "HTU TLA" and "HTU FLA" on my resume and no one even bothered to question it (must be how I got my current job!).

Now you are in on our little secret, so don't be afraid to tell the next person that throws an acronym at you to cease and desist with the HTU TLA's and FLA's and watch the expression on their face change from smug to confused and feel free to put it on your resume to see if your future employer is really paying attention.