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An ability to communicate is the bare minimum to be effective in almost all jobs. A team of mediocre anythings who communicate effectively will achieve more tha

An ability to communicate is the bare minimum to be effective in almost all jobs. A team of mediocre anythings who communicate effectively will achieve more than a team of exceptional anythings who communicate poorly. The way you’re characterising communication shows that you’ve been unfortunate enough to work in environments where volume of communication has been mistaken for a measure of quality. Good communication is characterised by the ability to share in the understanding of others, effective communication makes a group of people more than the sum of their parts. Effective communication leads to less communication. I hope someday you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in a positive environment that is able to demonstrate all of this to you, because effective communication will improve your output more than any programming experience ever could.

dustedcodes 4y ago
> will achieve more than a team of exceptional anythings who communicate poorly Not being a good communicator doesn't make you a poor communicator. My point is that you don't have to be a good communicator, I never said you can be a poor communicator. Just being normal, not poor or good at communication, but just being normally capable of speaking and good at coding is better than being a great communicator with average coding skills.
- solarmist 4y ago
  It depends. If you are on a team with full support, designers, product management, project management, etc., then sure. But as soon as you lose one of those engineers (e.g., internal tools teams often pick up those tasks and so to build the right thing requires better than average communication skills.
- canes123456 4y ago
  The median communicator is a very poor communicator most of the time. Communication takes active focus and effort and the default is zoning out or making assumptions about what the other is saying.
- phphphphp 4y ago
  > [...] just being normally capable of speaking [...] I think you may be confusing a medium (speaking) with communication itself. Successful communication is as much about the choice of medium as it is what you're communicating. Communication is the method through which we extract thoughts from our own brain and share them. Code is a form of communication! You can be a fantastic speaker and a terrible communicator, likewise you can be a terrible speaker and a fantastic communicator. The right environment for you is an environment in which you're able to choose to communicate in the medium that has the best outcomes. For example, spoken communication is my weakest form of communication and yet it has not hindered me at all, in fact, I am considered an excellent communicator by the people I work with. Sometimes, you have[1] to use a method of communication that you're not confident with, so you can develop strategies to help you communicate more effectively in that situation. When I'm speaking, I take notes in advance to flesh out my thoughts, and if I find myself struggling during a conversation, I'm honest about it and recommend next steps -- e.g: "I'm not sure about that off the top of my head, so after this call I will put together some thoughts and get back to you by the end of the day". The people you work with benefit most when you succeed :) You're clearly a very capable communicator based on your comments here, you don't need to argue against the fundamental importance of communication, rather, you need to find an environment where you're encourage and rewarded for embracing the communication methods that work best for you. I couldn't have spoken this comment out loud and that has zero impact on my communication ability. [1] Dyslexia is a common example of this that I've encountered. If a colleague prefers listening to reading due to dyslexia, I will choose to speak with them because even though I'm bad at it that is the most effective means of communicating with them.

dustedcodes 4y ago

> will achieve more than a team of exceptional anythings who communicate poorly Not being a good communicator doesn't make you a poor communicator. My point is that you don't have to be a good communicator, I never said you can be a poor communicator. Just being normal, not poor or good at communication, but just being normally capable of speaking and good at coding is better than being a great communicator with average coding skills.

solarmist 4y ago
It depends. If you are on a team with full support, designers, product management, project management, etc., then sure. But as soon as you lose one of those engineers (e.g., internal tools teams often pick up those tasks and so to build the right thing requires better than average communication skills.
canes123456 4y ago
The median communicator is a very poor communicator most of the time. Communication takes active focus and effort and the default is zoning out or making assumptions about what the other is saying.
phphphphp 4y ago
> [...] just being normally capable of speaking [...] I think you may be confusing a medium (speaking) with communication itself. Successful communication is as much about the choice of medium as it is what you're communicating. Communication is the method through which we extract thoughts from our own brain and share them. Code is a form of communication! You can be a fantastic speaker and a terrible communicator, likewise you can be a terrible speaker and a fantastic communicator. The right environment for you is an environment in which you're able to choose to communicate in the medium that has the best outcomes. For example, spoken communication is my weakest form of communication and yet it has not hindered me at all, in fact, I am considered an excellent communicator by the people I work with. Sometimes, you have[1] to use a method of communication that you're not confident with, so you can develop strategies to help you communicate more effectively in that situation. When I'm speaking, I take notes in advance to flesh out my thoughts, and if I find myself struggling during a conversation, I'm honest about it and recommend next steps -- e.g: "I'm not sure about that off the top of my head, so after this call I will put together some thoughts and get back to you by the end of the day". The people you work with benefit most when you succeed :) You're clearly a very capable communicator based on your comments here, you don't need to argue against the fundamental importance of communication, rather, you need to find an environment where you're encourage and rewarded for embracing the communication methods that work best for you. I couldn't have spoken this comment out loud and that has zero impact on my communication ability. [1] Dyslexia is a common example of this that I've encountered. If a colleague prefers listening to reading due to dyslexia, I will choose to speak with them because even though I'm bad at it that is the most effective means of communicating with them.