Food for thought
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Sometimes I go back and read old posts and have to wonder what I was thinking. I mean, isn't writing as a means of communication supposed to allow you to go back and read the words again, ensuring no spelling errors, clarity (and hopefully, occasionally, wit). There are moments when I realize that I thought I was being witty at the time but upon second reading realize that I clearly was not. At all. Other times it's I realize I actually sound sort of dumb when what I know I was trying to say is actually quite smart. Or at least not dumb.
Yesterday I wrote that the night before I had been sitting with friends watching Deal or No Deal trying to figure out the banker's strategy. Perhaps you breezed over this or perhaps you said, "ummm - there's not much 'figuring' to this strategy" (which is what I would have said if I'd been reading my own post.) I mean, this is not brain surgery. The banker's strategy is pretty obvious. The better your chances of winning the millions, the higher his offer is. It doesn't take a genius or even a third grader to know this. But that's not what I meant. What I meant was that we were trying to figure out exactly what we thought the banker was going to offer each time. And to determine the odds of the person winning more money than the banker had offered. I know - who cares.
But this got me to thinking about communication - when I write, when I speak, when I listen. I wonder how often we actually say what we mean. I think that we think we say what we mean a lot. But I wonder how often we truly do. There's so much miscommunication, he said she said,
games of semantics. We think we're being to the point and succinct and clear but the other person walks away with an entirely different impression of what went on.
Is this because people are just different? See the world in different ways? Comprehend and process in different ways? Or is it because people often don't listen well. Or perhaps they hear what they want to. Or is it because we're actually saying something other than we truly mean?
Clearly, this is different than me discussing the banker and his strategy. That's a cut and dry case with lack of proper elaboration or explanation. But when someone "misunderstands you", do you ever wonder why or how? Things seem fine with a friend come to find out 2 months later that they've been furious with you. Your boss thinks he asked you to do something one way when you swear he asked you to do it another. You've explained why something isn't possible to someone what feels like 75 times, but they continue to ask again and again.
Wow. All of this because I realized I sounded like a total dummy.
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 1:58 PM
Labels: daily, random thoughts
