Just a thought here for nobody in particular and everyone in general. I was told this morning that my misunderstanding of what somebody was telling me was because I have poor listening skills.
I've always maintained that any communication breakdown is the fault of the person trying to communicate their thoughts to another. Never the person to whom they're trying to communicate it. Listening, even active listening, is still a passive act. The communicator is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of getting his message across.
If I'm pouring water into a glass and it's missing the glass and running all over the floor instead, it's not the glass's fault. It's the fault of the hand I'm pouring with. Even if the glass moved. Or has holes.
Taking thoughts that are in your head, and conveying them through language to another person so that he receives and understands those thoughts is the responsibility of the person with the thoughts. Has to be that way. For it to be otherwise would require mind-reading.
It's why, when I find I'm not communicating a thought adequately, I try to explain it differently. If I ask my daughter to hand me the blue pencil and she keeps reaching for the purple one, I don't keep saying it's the blue pencil. Maybe I'll say it's the second one. Or the shortest one. Or the one with the most teeth marks. Then she'll eventually know which one I'm talking about, then inform me that pencil's not blue. It's aqua.
Anyway, this is something I learned a long time ago in a Communications class and really took it to heart. It's served me well, and was my golden rule that let me be a pretty effective teacher for a while. Any time a student didn't grasp what I was trying to teach him, it was a failure on my part for not communicating it to him in a way that conveyed understanding.
I bring this up because it's relevant to a "discussion" I was having with a friend last night and this morning, and also because message boards are all about communicating and I think it's a good thing to keep in mind when using them.
Any questions? If anyone didn't understand that, let me know and I'll see if I can come up with a couple more weird analogies to try to make my point. <g>
AI
