We are losing our ability to communicate effectively

30 Nov 0

We are losing our ability to communicate effectively

While we can now communicate in the fastest, easiest and most convenient ways possible using a myriad of devices anywhere, anytime to anyone in any corner of the connected world, I believe we are losing our ability to communicate.

Because communication is now ubiquitous, convenient, easy and instant, we have taken our writing skills for granted. Take emails. I believe that most of us are so comfortable with communicating with this medium that we use it like we are conversing with a good friend. Facebook and Twitter reinforce this mindset because we know our posts and tweets are reaching friends and relatives.

Jeff Bezos

The result is a quantum disconnect fueled by snippets of information that are most times incomprehensible.

When you a sitting face to face and having a conversation, the context of what you are talking about is always top of mind. But when you converse in the same manner with email the recipient may not read email for hours or days. The context gets lost. Complicate that with several acronyms in the copy and you might as well call a cryptologist.

We tend to write emails as if the recipient is sitting across from us leaving out the content because we believe the recipient will know what we are writing about. We have become lazy writers.

And I’m not alone in my view.

Walter Chen in his blog, IDoneThis.com, wrote about Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon who values writing over talking to such an extreme that in Amazon senior executive meetings, “before any conversation or discussion begins, everyone sits for 30 minutes in total silence, carefully reading six-page printed memos.”

Andy Grove

Writing out full sentences enforces clear thinking, but more than that, it’s a compelling method to drive memo authors to write in a narrative structure that reinforces a distinctly Amazon way of thinking—its obsession with the customer. In every memo that could potentially address any issue in the company, the memo author must answer the question: “What’s in it for the customer, the company, and how does the answer to the question enable innovation on behalf of the customer?”

Like Bezos, Andy Grove of Intel finds value in the process of writing, but he doesn’t consider reading important. Grove considers the process to force yourself “to be more precise than [you] might be verbally”, creating “an archive of data” that can “help to validate ad hoc inputs” and to reflect with precision on your thought and approach.

Writing, according to Grove, is a “safety-net” for your thought process that you should always be doing to “catch … anything you may have missed.”

So what is the solution? Write more, write casually, but include all the pertinent facts and pretend your reader knows practically nothing about what you are writing about.

Sovrn

The Publisher

Writing

The Publisher

If you vote for Trump and his MAGA GOP members you may indirectly start World War III.

If Trump and his MAGA GOP take control of our Congress, they will cut off support for Ukraine. They already cut support on the advice of Trump when the Congress was ready to approve the spending bill with support for Ukraine.

What will happen next?

Without Ukraine support, Putin will overrun the country
Putin has talked about invading Poland next.
If he does NATO and the US will join forces to defend Poland and that may be the start of World War III.

IT’S EASY

YOUR VOTE COUNTS

More than ever now that our Democracy is under threat by the GOP.

Why you shouldn’t vote for the MAGA Republicans.*A vote for MAGA GOP Congress members will turn congress into a right-wing do-nothing legislature.

“The Republican party is quickly becoming a party of anarchy and lawlessness,”

said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “This is supposed to be the party of conservative principles, of tradition, of respect for customs and rules that make society governable.

“The idea that the law does not apply to Republicans is something that has now become part of the mainstream of the Republican party. We see it in terms of the approach to elections. We see it in terms of the treatment of immigrants. Some of the actions with regard to abortion may approach that level. The Republican party appears to consider the law and the constitution to be optional and to have lost legitimacy.”

From The Guardian

Republicans’ lawless leaders at odds with midterm law and order message | Republicans | The Guardian

If you vote Republican you are supporting:

- Voter suppression
  
  – 19 GOP red states have pending laws suppressing voter’s ability to vote. Historically, dictators and Fascists have suppressed votes to stay in power.
- White Supremacy/Racism
  
  – The GOP has come out in support of QAnon, The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys
- Infrastructure Failures
  
  – You may lose a loved one, a relative or a friend in a train crash, a bridge collapse or a plane crash as Republicans strip funds from President Biden’s infrastructure bill.
- Abolishment of Women’s Rights
  
  – The Texas abortion ban if left to stand will be passed in several other GOP states. Idaho will pass an anti-abortion law based on the Texas law. 16 states have “trigger” abortion ban laws.
- Roe vs. Wade was overturned
  
  by the US Supreme Court.
  https://cnn.it/3RaW1zm
  https://nyti.ms/3IcANNo
- Your children will grow up into a country with polluted air and water
  
  With the recent Supreme Court banning EPA authority from polluters
  https://bit.ly/3IfQ1Bf
- Universal Background Checks
  
  on Gun Purchases – will never get passed.
  Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional plea to improve gun purchase background checks
  https://cnn.it/3AnRweO
- Federal Minimum wage
  
  – will never go up leaving 18 states still paying $7.25 an hour.
- Conservatism
  
  – the last thing America needs are conservative leaders, especially some Republicans who want to keep America from progressing. The last thing America needs is backward-thinking leaders in the 21st Century.
- The Party of Opportunists
  
  – Republicans have turned to cheating to stay in power or to get back into power…and nothing is getting done by them for the American people.
- The Party of Authoritarianism
  
  The enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.
  - Are you a traitor to Democracy, the Constitution, the American people,
    
    and everything America stands for: Truth, Justice and Liberty for all? Look what is happening in Ukraine.
  - Don’t be – Vote Blue in 2024.

*Of course, not all Republicans are like those described above. Here is a list of those who should stay in office.

House of Representatives – those who voted to impeach the former president

- 1. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s at-large district – Unfortunately, she lost her seat.
  2. Rep. Tom Rice, South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District
  3. Rep. Dan Newhouse, Washington’s 4th
  4. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois’ 16th
  5. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio’s 16th
  6. Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan’s 6th
  7. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington’s 3rd
  8. Rep. Peter Meijer, Michigan’s 3rd
  9. Rep. John Katko, New York’s 24th
  10. Rep. David Valadao, California’s 21st

Senate – The Republicans who voted to convict the former president after impeachment:

Richard Burr of North Carolina
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
Susan Collins of Maine
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Mitt Romney of Utah
Ben Sasse of Nebraska
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

YOUR VOTE COUNTS. It’s a lie to think otherwise.

Paid for by Jake Stone for American Democracy

VOTE like your freedom depended on it…because it does.

Don’t let this happen to our Democracy

Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

We are losing our ability to communicate effectively