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Developers Are Lazy Communicators
When understanding is hard, people give up
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.
Developers have many tricks and tools to confuse the audience. The common
- Drown the audience with details
- Confuse with jargon
- Overwhelm with speed
- Don’t pitch at the right level and give too much detail
- Distract the audience by their body language
Developers drown out the signal with noise. Instead of bring understanding and clarity, they bring confusion and misunderstanding.
Experts explain things simply in words the audience understands. Most developers add more detail, use jargon and make the problem harder to understand.
Lazy communication
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Unknown
