Good at programming, bad at communicating
June 10th, 2009 | by David |I can’t remember how I originally found the link (was it in someone’s tweet?) but I managed to find it again in order to share it here. The message may seem silly in retrospect, but I think it was enlightening. The article is called Sometimes, The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate. The author writes that:
[...] good programming practices are directly opposed to good communication practices.
In bullet form:
- D.R.Y. Does Not Apply.
- Humans don’t mean what they say.
- Compilers don’t need to see an example.
- Programs love definitions; Humans get flummoxed.
From now on I will try to repeat myself more often, act on what people mean and not what they say, give more examples and avoid definitions. Except when programming!
2 Responses to “Good at programming, bad at communicating”
By Carl Ådahl on Jun 17, 2009 | Reply
Don’t forget to repeat back what you think people mean. With some luck you’ll converge on consensus after a few iterations.
By David on Jun 17, 2009 | Reply
Thanks, that’s an important one!