Comment by philwelch

I used to have a deep revulsion for cliches in general, so I definitely get where this guy is coming from. The thing is, cliches work when they encode concepts in ways that everyone understands. I don't remember the specific example, but I remember one conversation where I was tediously trying to explain and apply a concept that there was already a 3-4 word cliche for, and the person I was talking to impatiently just blurted out the cliche at me. I was annoyed because I was trying to avoid invoking cliches, but I later realized that invoking cliches can actually be an efficient form of communication.