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As someone who learned about the electrical meaning of impedance matching in school, where impedance is a commonly discussed fundamental quantity in circuits (i

As someone who learned about the electrical meaning of impedance matching in school, where impedance is a commonly discussed fundamental quantity in circuits (it’s the AC equivalent to resistance), I have always tried to avoid using the term outside of engineering circles to avoid confusing people. This is the first I’ve ever heard someone deliberately apply it to a disparate array of phenomena but I have to say that, to me, the phrase makes sense in all those contexts and has a nice ring to it.

jcims 5y ago
Complete tangent here but I've noticed a form of impedance matching when I talk to certain people. I think it's a combination of natural cadence and information density or something, but there are some folks that I can effortlessly talk to and others where we constantly struggle with stepping on top of each other and/or seek clarification. It's a pairwise thing without a common cause that I can see. For example, I can see the folks that I struggle to talk with speak effortlessly with others as well. It's really odd. But anyway to drive the point home I started calling it an impedance mismatch which makes sense to some and not others. :)
inopinatus 5y ago
I've used it to discuss organisational dynamics. Most recently, for a small startup trying to establish a service agreement for a large enterprise customer, and the differences in values, expectations, processes etc that hampered the relationship, which we termed an "impedence mismatch" and all the engineers in the room at least nodded. Labelling certain problems this way, dispassionately and without rancour, really took heat out of the discussion, which assisted in finding solutions. In such circumstances, differences are bridgeable with understanding, which inevitably provokes jokes about certain people being transformers, being tightly wound etc.

jcims 5y ago

Complete tangent here but I've noticed a form of impedance matching when I talk to certain people. I think it's a combination of natural cadence and information density or something, but there are some folks that I can effortlessly talk to and others where we constantly struggle with stepping on top of each other and/or seek clarification. It's a pairwise thing without a common cause that I can see. For example, I can see the folks that I struggle to talk with speak effortlessly with others as well. It's really odd. But anyway to drive the point home I started calling it an impedance mismatch which makes sense to some and not others. :)

inopinatus 5y ago

I've used it to discuss organisational dynamics. Most recently, for a small startup trying to establish a service agreement for a large enterprise customer, and the differences in values, expectations, processes etc that hampered the relationship, which we termed an "impedence mismatch" and all the engineers in the room at least nodded. Labelling certain problems this way, dispassionately and without rancour, really took heat out of the discussion, which assisted in finding solutions. In such circumstances, differences are bridgeable with understanding, which inevitably provokes jokes about certain people being transformers, being tightly wound etc.