The Stuff of Thought: Language As a Window Into Human Nature is a 2007 book by experimental psychologist Steven Pinker.

Pinker "analyzes how our words relate to thoughts and to the world around us and reveals what this tells us about ourselves.

"[1] Put another way, Pinker "probes the mystery of human nature by examining how we use words".

So you split the difference by saying something that literally makes no sense while also conveying the message that you're not treating them like some kind of flunky.

The arguments contained within ride on the backs of his previous works, which paint human nature as having "distinct and universal properties, some of which are innate – determined at birth by genes rather than shaped primarily by environment.