I have generally found that one of the best ways to make young engineers and scientists appreciate the importance and difficulty of interpersonal communication

I have generally found that one of the best ways to make young engineers and scientists appreciate the importance and difficulty of interpersonal communication is to show them some of Claude Shannon (and other Bell Lab'ers) work on information theory and communication research. We think about Shannon as the architect of many many advances in technology but his impact has been much broader. This includes a huge amount liberal arts focused work in the field of communications. That and he has a doctorate in juggling...