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Not everyone finds written comms as easy as everyone else. absolutely +1 to keeping records, but as a form of communication it's not terribly equal.
by tomplayford 6y ago
Not everyone finds written comms as easy as everyone else.
absolutely +1 to keeping records, but as a form of communication it's not terribly equal.
- Benjammer 6y agoI don't know how to phrase this without sounding like a somewhat pedantic asshole, but I cannot understand this reasoning. Are we really saying there is less variability in people's spoken communication abilities than written? This concept is baffling to me. Who in the world talks better than they write? Also, in my experience, written comms is immensely more accessible and accommodating to diverse teams with people who may have variable levels of expertise with English.
- tomplayford 6y agoI was referring to dyslexia. About 5-15% of the US population have some form of dyslexia. Probably should have spelled that out. I do agree that for non native english speakers, the written word is more accessible.
- Benjammer 6y agoI worked with a guy who was legally blind, but could function with a physical screen overlay device that magnified things up to pretty absurd proportions. He was one of the better communicators (in writing) in the entire engineering org. I think we should work on individual cases to make writing more accessible to people for whom it's a struggle. But we shouldn't just throw out writing and it's overall effectiveness. That's not a solution, it's avoiding a hard problem. We don't just decide to only build one story buildings because of physical accessibility, because we don't want to throw out the efficiencies of multi-story structures. Instead we install ramps, automatic doors, elevators, etc. And we have legal standards for door widths and hallway widths, etc, etc.
- tomplayford 6y agoTotally agree - not suggesting we throw out writing, we would all be doomed. I’m sure your blind colleague wrote well - so do many of my dyslexic colleagues. Doesn’t mean it was easy or fast For them though. I suppose what I’m saying is that there’s no one-size-fits all or one thing for all tasks. This article highlights the advantages of writing. And I agree. But it isn’t the right work from home comms tool for all combinations of people and tasks.
- Benjammer 6y agoSure, that makes sense. Also I can for sure acknowledge that you answered my initial question. There are definitely people who speak better than they write, when it comes to certain conditions and disabilities that make writing harder than it is for the average person.
- RHSeeger 6y agoI'm not sure I follow that statement. I can see an argument that text is not strictly better than verbal communication but, at worst, I'd say it's equal (for people as a whole, not for one person in particular). Some people are better at written communication while some are better at verbal.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tomplayford 6y agoFor most people, I'll happily agree with you. From a dyslexic's perspective, being forced to only ever present one's ideas and thoughts in text is pretty restricive.
- RHSeeger 6y agoAnd that's fair.. for a dyslexic, written communication is worse. I wasn't trying to imply that, for all people, which medium is better varies for each individual. I was trying to say that, over the set of all people, which medium is better tends to vary by person. That neither medium is "better" for everyone.
- tomplayford 6y ago+1 - we're in complete agreement.
- mindhash 6y agoI have started using waccom tablet and it makes communication better especially when i work with junior dev team members. Drawing also resolves language barriers which some people in my side of the world face.