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# Kelford Labs Daily: The limits of language
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/kelford-labs-daily-the-limits-of-language/
- Published: 2023-11-03T10:24:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-18T15:16:46.000Z
- Description: Are they reading or experiencing?
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, value, writing, messaging, experiment, action

*“Language is a meaning approximator that sometimes gets too big for its britches and deceives us. … Language, like algebra, operates usefully only within certain limits. It's a tool for making representations of the world, which, unfortunately, we then go on to mistake for the world itself.” — George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain*

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At the end of the day, the words we write and the things we *say* to get our customers interested are approximators of meaning, but not the meaning itself.

By that I mean, it’s easy to think that we can talk our way to a sale, or write enough copy that people *have* to come away convinced.

But we can’t mistake language for the world itself—for experiencing value itself.

**Nobody will believe us until they’ve seen us—until we’ve *demonstrated* value to them in some meaningful way.**

Maybe that’s by giving them something to do, something to talk about, something to change or something to believe in.

Something *they* want, not just something *we want them to know*.

So if you’re frustrated that people are visiting your website, but not buying. Or signing up for your newsletter, but not converting. Or following you on social media, but not engaging—consider this:

**Are you talking about value, or are you demonstrating it?**

Are they reading, or are they experiencing?

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### Today’s experiment:

  
**Step 1: Marketing “Charades”** 
**Action:** Imagine (or act out, if you’re feeling brave) how you’d demonstrate how your service or product works and delivers value if you couldn’t *say* anything.  
**Time:** 2 minutes 

**Step 2: Review** 
**Action:** Pause and debrief. What did you focus on? What did you *show?* Where you would find it most enjoyable to try incorporating more demonstrating vs. saying into your marketing next?  
**Time:** 2 minutes