How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer

Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by taude on Friday October 28, 2022 @11:42AM (#33372883)

I think you're "assumed context" problem actually has another term called "Curse of Knowledge" [1] (which I believe it's much more known as). There's a ton of strategies that have been written about it. Just adding this term here for people who want to search for strategies on how to work around this. It comes into play in all forms of communication, written, verbal, Slack, etc...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by thundergolfer on Friday October 28, 2022 @12:08PM (#33373313)

Curse of knowledge is a different thing. The "assumed context" problem isn't a teacher-pupil or expert-novice dynamic. It's just someone not providing enough context to an audience that would otherwise be able to understand and help them.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by ladyattis on Friday October 28, 2022 @11:47AM (#33372957)

This is something I wrestle with at work all the time. I try to break things down to make them comprehensible but I wind up forgetting to frame the discussion to give the context needed to get input even from fellow developers.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by Consultant32452 on Friday October 28, 2022 @02:03PM (#33374961)

I can speak to what it's like with autism brain.

In conversations people often say things that I have unusual associations about. My mind will start spiraling about the unusual association and I will begin an internal narrative about the new, unrelated topic without verbalizing any of it. I will continue with the original conversation with the convo partner. Then, out of the blue, I will verbalize something about the second topic and the convo partner has no idea what I'm talking about. The topics can be as unrelated as databases and the mating habits of penguins. I have forgotten that the convo partner did not take the journey into the second narrative with me.

Countdown to database of mating habits of penguins comment.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by MonkeyClub on Friday October 28, 2022 @02:22PM (#33375277)

> Countdown to database of mating habits of penguins comment.

19 minutes.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by cjblomqvist on Friday October 28, 2022 @02:43PM (#33375630)

That's very clearly stated - I recognize it so much from my son (who has autism)! Thanks for putting it out there!

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by b3morales on Friday October 28, 2022 @08:30PM (#33379713)

Is this specifically an autistic trait and not something allistic minds do? Asking, uh, for a friend.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by Consultant32452 on Saturday October 29, 2022 @08:10PM (#33389317)

FWIW I think everyone does this on occasion.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by willjp on Friday October 28, 2022 @10:09PM (#33380290)

This sounds eerily familiar. Thank you for posting, I have some reading to do.

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Re:How to communicate (more) effectively as a developer by myko on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @09:16AM (#33420752)

Dang, this describes many interactions I've had over my life.

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