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Notes -
In your experience what percentage of "[more/better] communication" as a diagnosis or remedy in a social context is an effective or appropriate one? I think it's uncommon these days.
One common example of this phenomena goes something like above. If you're still not picking up what I'm laying down consider the following:
More Communication the platitude, tool, and HR seminar is a lie. In contexts where More Communication is a social lubricant, language to demand conciliatory notions or more respect from the powers that be, why can't we just ask for that? Who decided we should wrap "communication" into such things? Stakes vary between context, but the mechanics of communication are important. Most people are shit at communicating, and even those who hold an unusually innovative communication super power are still shit at communicating with someone competent. We shouldn't be muddying that precise failure up with population level memes.
Napoleon didn't deploy the More Communication meme after the Battle of Aspern-Essling, did he? Maybe he did. Even so, I maintain that More Communication is too overloaded and watered down. A meme that can mean an apology is in order, the radio failed and no one sent a runner, management sucks, or no one is going to be holding the bag for the latest fuck up-- this must be a warcrime against autists. Whoever made the Communications B.A. what it is has a lot to answer for at the Hague.
I could be an outlier but I thought I learned a decent thing or two from the communication class I took in college, years ago. None of it still strongly translated into direct applicability that I could detect at work or in my personal life, but I did find it useful to apply elsewhere.
One thing I’ve noticed about the Bay Area is because of its population size, density, competitiveness, the quick and hurried nature of things, people here tend to communicate in a fast and concise, “give me only the cliff notes” version of everything. Some of this makes sense, other times it makes me very frustrated dealing with them.
When I walk into a drug store and need to ask the pharmacist about something or I look at the back of the package of an an allergy medication, I don’t want to have to have a Ph.D in biochemistry to evaluate your product to know whether it’s going to help with my illness or not. I’m completely happy to hand it off to the marketing department to speak the language of ordinary people and tell me why their product is valuable to address the symptoms I’m experiencing.
On the other hand when someone tries hitting me up to get my opinion on something and they keep cutting me off or telling me I’m over explaining things, they’ll then spend the next half an hour asking 45 follow up questions, like hitting a stoplight after every 2 seconds before hitting the gas again when if you simply shut up and let me finish for 2 damn minutes, maybe, just maybe… all your questions may end up getting addressed without you ever having to ask. Yes, I don’t like it when people drone on anymore than anyone else does, but so few people here have ever perfected the skill of listening, it can be very difficult at times. A lot of times I don’t even bother for that reason.
I’ve also detested those academics who say things like “if you can’t explain it in 5 seconds to a 5 year old, you don’t understand it.” Homie. There are concepts I haven’t been able to understand for my entire life. Same for you. And with so much of human interaction today being trained off social media feeds, I can’t even imagine how agonizing it must be to ask people to read a single page in a book.
If you feel like being mean, ask them: "How long did your education take? That long, huh. Did your professors not understand the material, or are you worse at understanding things than a five-year-old?"
At best, a 5-second summary is a label that well-rounded individuals can use to find what you're talking about. At worse, it's a semantic stopsign that gets them to stop asking questions and fake understanding. It doesn't have enough information to explain anything with any complexity.
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