Mohtalim

I was lisening to the accountants training people on how to use new software and it's driving me crazy. However they seems to understand each other using words such as 'thingy' 'box at bottom' 'connected to net' and bunch of other stuff I can't even remember.

Are we too disconnected to average people for our own good?

Heh, don't worry.

People that understand will appreciate it, people that don't will substitute "thingy" automatically. Nothing lost, only potential gain

the more disconnected i get, the better i say!

I don't know, I mean we have to deal with these people sooner or later. and I can never be sure if they think I am treating them like morons or if I am talking with the moon language.

Don't worry. I'm fairly certain a large percentage of them believe you are treating them like morons. [sic]

It's never easy to talk to people on a subject in which there's a large gap in skill level. When explaining something to someone, you assume some minimum level of knowledge. The bigger the gap between the two parties, there's going to be a greater chance that the assumed level is above the listener's actual knowledge level. This is only a problem if you assume to much.

The second problem is whether the listener thinks that you think they're a moron. This is actually doubly likely since you can also assume too low of a level for the listener. Peijen classifies talking below a person's knowledge as treating them as a moron, and talking above as talking with moon language. I think they both really result in the person feeling like a moron.

In short, I agree with Jonathan.

Dwindlehop wrote:the more disconnected i get, the better i say!

Most people don't like elitists, of course, they never earned the right to become elite.

If you have the right people skills, you can get by any skill difference. It requires a huge amount of constant concentration and attention to body language though and most engineering types don't want or even can't do that.

I think it's more than noticing how your audience is responding. You really have to know how to draw parallels to everyday life that make sense and talk very colloquially. I guess saying "E thingy" and pointing is more understandable to some people than saying "Internet Explorer icon". And, if that works, run with it.

Ideally you want to communicate in such a way that you're using the right terms but explaining them as you go along, either through body language like Jason mentioned or explicit...explanations. When you use words "thingamabob" back to them it's easily taken as condescending; they use those words because they don't know or don't feel confident about using the right terms.

People don't like elitists who don't make an effort to bring others up to their level, but they don't mind "gurus" who do try to help them understand things. It doesn't matter whether they've made the effort to learn the stuff on their own; maybe they lack confidence, time, or even are just lazy. It doesn't matter, because that's not their field and they couldn't care less about knowing much about it. It takes effort to walk the line between condescension and incomprehension, but if you make the effort it can be worth it.

Unless they are, in fact, morons.

Why does no one ask me to explain anything?

Dave, I need to know more about thrust. Can you teach me?

hula hoop, my friend, hula hoop