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when a manager complains about oral/written communication they are NOT talking about how you spell things. its things like properly alerting them when issues

when a manager complains about oral/written communication they are NOT talking about how you spell things. its things like properly alerting them when issues arise, not being to terse yet not overly wordy emails, knowing what topics are appropriate on conference call and when others can be talked about offline, etc. i myself am not the best at communication, but those problems do not lie in the fact i didnt bother to use caps in a hn post.

greedo 9y ago
I think that if a developer has problems communicating in their written/spoken language of choice, it might indicate a similar issue with their programming language of choice. Some managers do care about spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I have a 2nd VP who cares about the colors on the charts and graphs delivered to him.
- autokad 9y ago
  well charts/graphs delivered to management is an entirely different skill set / topic. slack/emails/comments is a different story. i myself would be happy to see any documentation, and something more than: # this function calculates x def calculatesX():
  - tankenmate 9y ago
    I'm not sure if you are just going off on a tangent or just completely missed greedo's point. If you can't write in your mother tongue properly you probably can't code properly either.
    - autokad 9y ago
      they are two completely different skill sets, and i think on some level you must know that, or have no idea what coding is. Not just different, but orthogonal. When one is good at one, they tend to be worse at the other.
      - leetcrew 9y ago
        disagree. writing creatively or with nuance is definitely an orthogonal skill to coding, but understanding and following grammar rules requires a very similar syntax-parsing ability to that which is required to write code that will compile. unless you struggle to get simple programs to compile, you very likely have the ability to write with proper grammar, assuming you are willing to make the effort. I would even argue that the skill of technical writing, where precision and compactness are valued over creative flourish, maps very closely onto the same skills needed for good program design and clean coding style.

greedo 9y ago

I think that if a developer has problems communicating in their written/spoken language of choice, it might indicate a similar issue with their programming language of choice. Some managers do care about spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I have a 2nd VP who cares about the colors on the charts and graphs delivered to him.

autokad 9y ago
well charts/graphs delivered to management is an entirely different skill set / topic. slack/emails/comments is a different story. i myself would be happy to see any documentation, and something more than: # this function calculates x def calculatesX():
- tankenmate 9y ago
  I'm not sure if you are just going off on a tangent or just completely missed greedo's point. If you can't write in your mother tongue properly you probably can't code properly either.
  - autokad 9y ago
    they are two completely different skill sets, and i think on some level you must know that, or have no idea what coding is. Not just different, but orthogonal. When one is good at one, they tend to be worse at the other.
    - leetcrew 9y ago
      disagree. writing creatively or with nuance is definitely an orthogonal skill to coding, but understanding and following grammar rules requires a very similar syntax-parsing ability to that which is required to write code that will compile. unless you struggle to get simple programs to compile, you very likely have the ability to write with proper grammar, assuming you are willing to make the effort. I would even argue that the skill of technical writing, where precision and compactness are valued over creative flourish, maps very closely onto the same skills needed for good program design and clean coding style.