Developers Are Lazy Communicators

When understanding is hard, people give up

Ben "The Hosk" Hosking
5 min readJul 14, 2023
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

If you can’t convince them, confuse them. Harry S Truman

Developers have the knowledge, skills and experience to create software but few are blessed with the skills to communicate clearly on the subject.

Like a modern day Cassandra developers are endowed with the ability to understand technology but struggle to communicate on the subject to managers and customers.

When you make understanding your message difficult, people give up.

What is communication?

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw

Without effective communication, developers cannot persuade others to do what they think is right. Communication is the primary tool to influence people and help software projects do the right thing.

Communication isn’t just transmitting information to an audience via speaking, writing, or presenting.

The burden on communicating a message is with the communicator, you can’t blame the audience for not understanding.

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Ben "The Hosk" Hosking

Technology philosopher | Software dev → Solution architect | Avid reader | Life long learner