The opposite is the more interesting word though: hit bug. A bug/mistake/fuckup that turns out to improve the software.
dylan604 · 2026-08-28 16:57:09 UTC
They're not bugs, they're undocumented features
looperhacks · 2026-08-28 18:10:32 UTC
A misfeature is specifically a feature that's just bad, while verschlimmbessern can happen with everything that nobody would call a feature (insert something about xkcd 1172). But yeah, it's pretty close
Krasnol · 2026-08-28 16:22:44 UTC
I'd say enshitification is a good enough word.
Verschlimmbesserung is not widely used these days in Germany.
ahf8Aithaex7Nai · 2026-08-28 17:02:12 UTC
I do think it's part of many people's vocabulary. It's a bit informal. And it's not a word you use every day. But it's definitely a word that gets used when the occasion calls for it, just like the related verb "verschlimmbessern."
"Enshittification" isn't the same thing. "Verschlimmbesserung" is when you try to fix a loose connection in a power cord and then no electricity flows at all, or when you try to fix a bad haircut with a trimmer and the haircut ends up looking even worse, etc.
juvvel · 2026-08-28 18:03:10 UTC
Of course it is still widely used.
icantevenhold · 2026-08-28 18:06:48 UTC
Define widely used;
I probably haven’t used it once in the last 15 years and have heard it maybe twice.
Source: lifelong German speaker
ahf8Aithaex7Nai · 2026-08-28 19:27:17 UTC
I am even.
Source: Lifelong Prime
remuskaos · 2026-08-28 19:31:59 UTC
Maybe you're working with the wrong people? It's uncommon among younger people, but I frequently hear craftsmen say it (who are over 50).
looperhacks · 2026-08-28 18:06:34 UTC
It's certainly used - not in the top 100, but if the situation calls for it, it's not unexpected.
There's a big difference between enshitification and "Verschlimmbesserung". The latter has the intent of actually improving things, while the first is making things knowingly worse for profit.
levzettelin · 2026-08-28 16:55:34 UTC
Just from looking at the title, I feel that this talking about AI in general...
alhirzel · 2026-08-28 16:55:51 UTC
I would probably abbreviate that to v17g.
dwoldrich · 2026-08-28 17:04:16 UTC
Value is now only _extracted_. Place the acquired good into the press and smash it until all but the faintest essence remains among the mash. The squeezings are bottled and saved to pay for future _extractions_.
Companies like Valve can continue largely unshittificated because they are private. Once that is no longer the case, all our game rentals will be squozen away from us.
nazgulsenpai · 2026-08-28 19:06:58 UTC
TIL squozen is the past participle of squeeze, but only because I first thought hah this guy is making words up. Foiled again!
shaftoe444 · 2026-08-28 19:22:44 UTC
> It's stressful having me head squoze
ThrowawayR2 · 2026-08-28 19:37:51 UTC
Gabe Newell has an $11bn net worth so he hasn't exactly been not squeezing.
eqvinox · 2026-08-28 17:41:44 UTC
It's actually a verb, "Verschlimmbesserung" is the substantivization.
Base: verschlimmbessern
Present conjugation: I verschlimmbesser[e], you verschlimmbesserst, he/she/it verschlimmbessert, we verschlimmbesser[e]n, (plural-)you verschlimmbessert, they verschlimmbesser[e]n
The [e] at the end is leftover from an older form, in the cases where I omitted it it would sound archaic to a German speaker, but in the other cases it's equivalent or may even sound better. It's also regionally different. The archaic versions kinda sound south German (Swabian, Bavarian).
[ed. made some adjustments]
P.S.: "Verbesserung" means improvement, "Verschlimmerung" means worsening/aggravation. The combined word is understood quite specifically though, not just as a combination of the two. It's *not* a normal case of German "paste words together", that's for nouns (you can do it with the substantivization, e.g. Donaudampfschiffverschlimmbesserungskapitän = "captain of verschlimmbessern the steam ships on the Donau", which makes little sense of course). It's not identical to enshittification either, the latter (to me at least) implies intention; verschlimmbessern you can (and probably often will) do by accident.
schoen · 2026-08-28 17:43:55 UTC
Cases apply only to nouns; the present and past perfect are called tenses.
eqvinox · 2026-08-28 17:59:10 UTC
(already edited in)
OptionOfT · 2026-08-28 17:42:33 UTC
I usually relate this to people chasing good reviews at work. Maintaining a system and keeping it bug-free doesn't get people promoted.
Doing something large, inventing a bunch of metrics, and showing that you improve on those metrics does.
arjan_sch · 2026-08-28 18:09:39 UTC
What about "worseprovement"
eqvinox · 2026-08-28 18:17:01 UTC
As a German, I might not have thought of that but would absolutely use it to translate Verschlimmbesserung. Does it sound "normal" enough to native English speakers?
arjan_sch · 2026-08-28 18:24:13 UTC
I'm Dutch, sounds pretty good to me
inanutshellus · 2026-08-28 18:29:10 UTC
It's definitely a normal-sounding, memorable word for us native English speakers.
Meanwhile I won't be able to remember that German word longer than it takes me to close this tab. Vershumthingsomething.
groestl · 2026-08-28 18:29:55 UTC
Thumbs up, let's settle on that translation
clbrmbr · 2026-08-28 18:45:16 UTC
It's totally plausible portmanteau. I get the feeling thought that it sounds more marked in English than in German where these kind of mashups are formed more freely.
ThrowawayR2 · 2026-08-28 19:41:50 UTC
The sibling post's "disimprovement" sounds more natural and has parallel form with pre-existing broadly accepted English words like "disincentive" and "disinfect".
Comments
The opposite is the more interesting word though: hit bug. A bug/mistake/fuckup that turns out to improve the software.
Verschlimmbesserung is not widely used these days in Germany.
"Enshittification" isn't the same thing. "Verschlimmbesserung" is when you try to fix a loose connection in a power cord and then no electricity flows at all, or when you try to fix a bad haircut with a trimmer and the haircut ends up looking even worse, etc.
I probably haven’t used it once in the last 15 years and have heard it maybe twice.
Source: lifelong German speaker
Source: Lifelong Prime
There's a big difference between enshitification and "Verschlimmbesserung". The latter has the intent of actually improving things, while the first is making things knowingly worse for profit.
Companies like Valve can continue largely unshittificated because they are private. Once that is no longer the case, all our game rentals will be squozen away from us.
Base: verschlimmbessern
Present conjugation: I verschlimmbesser[e], you verschlimmbesserst, he/she/it verschlimmbessert, we verschlimmbesser[e]n, (plural-)you verschlimmbessert, they verschlimmbesser[e]n
Past/perfect: verschlimmbessert (e.g. "it got verschlimmbessert")
Imperative: verschlimmbesser[e] (e.g. "don't verschlimmbesser that!")
The [e] at the end is leftover from an older form, in the cases where I omitted it it would sound archaic to a German speaker, but in the other cases it's equivalent or may even sound better. It's also regionally different. The archaic versions kinda sound south German (Swabian, Bavarian).
[ed. made some adjustments]
P.S.: "Verbesserung" means improvement, "Verschlimmerung" means worsening/aggravation. The combined word is understood quite specifically though, not just as a combination of the two. It's *not* a normal case of German "paste words together", that's for nouns (you can do it with the substantivization, e.g. Donaudampfschiffverschlimmbesserungskapitän = "captain of verschlimmbessern the steam ships on the Donau", which makes little sense of course). It's not identical to enshittification either, the latter (to me at least) implies intention; verschlimmbessern you can (and probably often will) do by accident.
Doing something large, inventing a bunch of metrics, and showing that you improve on those metrics does.
Meanwhile I won't be able to remember that German word longer than it takes me to close this tab. Vershumthingsomething.
Via https://dict.leo.org/forum/viewUnsolvedquery.php?idThread=49... and https://dict.leo.org/forum/viewUnsolvedquery.php?idThread=16...
Unless I'm mistaken, Russian has a wonderful idiom for this: "bear job"