9Rocket Science and Private Equity have one big common point. 99.9% of the people listening to a conversation between people in these fields would have no clue what is being said. And if someone with less than at least a decade of full-time employment in either sector started to talk about it, an expert would immediately detect that imposter. Yet, private equity is not rocket science. The reason why most people cannot follow a conversation about rocket science is that it is difficult to do so without having spent years going through the Math, redoing the many calculations the field is built upon. Plus, of course the jargon which is linked to all these math derivations. In private equity, there are no derivations to go through, you do not need to acquire tools and techniques in a specific order to acquire the full body of accumulated knowledge. It is all about the jargon! There is nothing inherently complicated in private equity. I have observed that the mindset, which is very much a Finance and Homo Economicus mindset, is not intuitive to many people, or just not appealing. There is nothing intrinsically difficult. The endless jargon, however, is a stunning and defining feature. And it matters. I can guess very rapidly, and quite accurately, the degree of industry experience of anyone after just a few minutes. The choice of words, and the context in which they are used will give the answer. Flipping this observation around: If you want to work in this industry, be it directly or indirectly (e.g. as a service provider), you need to speak the language. That's all about fluency. Anyone who is pitching a deal or being interviewed for a job ought to be fluent in the language of private markets. If not, detection is immediate, and exclusion follows. And private equity is too cool to be kept out of it. So, here it is, a dictionary!And of course, I tried to make it a bit funny, 'cos who would read a dictionary? What could be more boring? Well, I tried to make it non boring.