(no subject)

[randomness]

In a friends-locked post recently, one of my friends discussed how people don't actually read what you write, but instead construct a virtual text from your title, a few fragments, and their own preconceptions.

A few minutes ago I realized something analogous happens when people don't hear what you say. It's all the worse when what you say isn't a very accurate reflection of the thoughts inside your head. And worse still when your primary focus is being witty, not transferring information.

I care very deeply about her. However, I find it very difficult to articulate that feeling to others. Not to her, fortunately, and that's reassuring. But it never comes out right when I try to explain it to anyone else.

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Unrelated to that I had a (rather constructive and informative) rant building but it would have been better if I had had it about 48 hours ago so I could have presented it in a meeting. Perhaps it's more of a disquisition than a rant.

Comments

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Someone once told me that the figure bantered about by researchers is that we absorb roughly 20% of what is told to us in any given interaction/conversation.

I've always though that number seemed low, but as a teacher I've been amazed at how you can discuss a question orally, give visual diagrams and demonstrations, hand out a written verbal description of the problem, and read that together out loud with annotations and room for questions, and students will still come back the next week saying "oh, I didn't understand what we were supposed to do." At first I thought they were just being dense and not bothering to try to understand, but lately I've come to believe that this whole "learning" ting, which can be about academic lessons, or from social conversations, is trickier than I had previously thought.

(As to LJ titles, though, the way my "friends page" layout is, I almost never even see the titles, and only go back and read them if the first line of the entry makes it obvious that I needed to in order to get the context).

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I've come to believe that this whole "learning" ting, which can be about academic lessons, or from social conversations, is trickier than I had previously thought.

Yeah, it also seems that sales and marketing needs to work this way.

Apropos of a conversation we had at P. F. Chang's, here's the link to the writeup of the brown rice sushi place I mentioned:

Homma's Brown Rice Sushi, Palo Alto, CA:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/r_ness/7246.html