3 ms·

The Professional Side Effects of Social Media

3 points by laurex 7y ago

Communitivity 7y ago
While raising a daughter and also mentoring younger devs I've noticed their communication patterns online tend toward short and less polished. Short to me means 1-2 sentences, even on platforms such as Slack, which is not limited to 140 characters (we have a family slack and slack bots). The sentences also tend towards brevity. By unpolished I don't mean raw stream of thought, though I see that too. What I mean is that they may get one pass at polishing, but not the polish that's usually in a well crafted email. These trends are most noticeable when the writing is a report, or a proposal. When I'm doing an editing/review pass I like to check two basic things, 8WH [1][2][3] (variations have less questions, such as 5WH and 6WH) and the Heilmeier Catechism [4]. Both improve the quality a lot by themselves if present. 8WH is a mnemonic for a set of basic framing questions: Who? What? Where? Why? When? Whose? Which? For Whom? How? These questions are too ambiguous without contextualizing. For example if I was recommending a big equipment purchase: * Who should the purchaser be? * What needs to be purchased? * Where will this equipment be used? * Why does it need to be purchased? Why this make/model? * When is it needed, and when does it need to be purchased by? * Whose money will be used to pay for it? * Which make and model is recommended? * For Whom will the equipment be used? * How will the purchase be confirmed, and tracked? There's overlap, and sometimes some questions can be combined or eliminated, but when writing myself I try to do all of them first before consolidating. The Heilmeier Catechism also has some overlap with 8WH, but is a useful set of questions on its own. The questions are geared to a pitch of some kind: * What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon. * How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice? * What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful? * Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make? * What are the risks? * How much will it cost? * How long will it take? * What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success? [1] https://oneminuteenglish.org/en/wh-questions/ https://oneminuteenglish.org/en/wh-questions/ [2] https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/a-simple-sure-fire-way-to-create-great-content-the-5-w-the-h/ https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/a-simple-sure-fire-way-to-c... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws [4] https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism

3 points by laurex 7y ago

While raising a daughter and also mentoring younger devs I've noticed their communication patterns online tend toward short and less polished. Short to me means 1-2 sentences, even on platforms such as Slack, which is not limited to 140 characters (we have a family slack and slack bots). The sentences also tend towards brevity. By unpolished I don't mean raw stream of thought, though I see that too. What I mean is that they may get one pass at polishing, but not the polish that's usually in a well crafted email. These trends are most noticeable when the writing is a report, or a proposal. When I'm doing an editing/review pass I like to check two basic things, 8WH [1][2][3] (variations have less questions, such as 5WH and 6WH) and the Heilmeier Catechism [4]. Both improve the quality a lot by themselves if present. 8WH is a mnemonic for a set of basic framing questions: Who? What? Where? Why? When? Whose? Which? For Whom? How? These questions are too ambiguous without contextualizing. For example if I was recommending a big equipment purchase: * Who should the purchaser be? * What needs to be purchased? * Where will this equipment be used? * Why does it need to be purchased? Why this make/model? * When is it needed, and when does it need to be purchased by? * Whose money will be used to pay for it? * Which make and model is recommended? * For Whom will the equipment be used? * How will the purchase be confirmed, and tracked? There's overlap, and sometimes some questions can be combined or eliminated, but when writing myself I try to do all of them first before consolidating. The Heilmeier Catechism also has some overlap with 8WH, but is a useful set of questions on its own. The questions are geared to a pitch of some kind: * What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon. * How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice? * What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful? * Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make? * What are the risks? * How much will it cost? * How long will it take? * What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success? [1] https://oneminuteenglish.org/en/wh-questions/ https://oneminuteenglish.org/en/wh-questions/ [2] https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/a-simple-sure-fire-way-to-create-great-content-the-5-w-the-h/ https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/a-simple-sure-fire-way-to-c... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws [4] https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism