There was no "there" there

Posted by R. Berg on November 22, 2005

In Reply to: There was no "there" there posted by Meg on November 22, 2005

: People used a lot of jargon in the late '90s...A presentation at an IPO road show that nobody could understand would result in a stock that shot up 900 percent. But there was no "there" there. It's not an option anymore to take your language to a very simple and clear level.

: What does the sentence 'But there was no "there" there' mean here?

It means there was no substance, just illusion. The stock was a poor investment, nothing solid about it. People were fooled by an impressive sales pitch.

"There's no 'there' there" originated in a comment Gertrude Stein made about Oakland, California.