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Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

koshka.love

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Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#21

Post by paulpauper »

hotnfresh wrote: post #14
paulpauper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

listening is good for multitasking . both formats have pros and cons. you can listen to a book in the car for example.

Listening requires so much focus from me that if I try to multitask I’ll just realize, after a span of seconds to minutes, that I’ve not heard a single word that was said. It’ll happen again as soon as I pick the multitasking back up. May as well read or watch a video. Same focus required either way. Though I do think I’m unusual. Basically can’t enjoy podcasts the way most people do, which is a bummer. In hindsight,…

most podcasts suck because they are full of ads and filler.

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#22

Post by alphazard »

A lot of comments making the counter argument "speaking > writing" are smuggling in interactive communication. And in that case I would have to agree, it's faster for most people to talk than write, and going back and forth in conversation is easier than in text.

But that doesn't scale. Even if you have the best ideas, you won't get very far coordinating others if you can't communicate non-interactively.

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#23

Post by movedx »

tekacs wrote: post #4

I think that the author is a little mixed up and is /actually/ saying that 'Reading is Objectively Superior to Listening as a Communication Method'. Writing != Reading and as someone building an app powered by dictation that turns speech into text for the reader to consume... speaking is fast, reliable and powerful and reading is fast, reliable and powerful. On the other hand typing (especially on mobile, but even on…

On a somewhat related note: how come we, as a society, have never really adopted the daily "video log" (except for the YouTubers amongst us; the Neistat wannabes), but we have _heavily_ adopted the idea of the written journal?

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#24

Post by catchnear4321 »

movedx wrote: post #23
tekacs wrote: post #4

I think that the author is a little mixed up and is /actually/ saying that 'Reading is Objectively Superior to Listening as a Communication Method'. Writing != Reading and as someone building an app powered by dictation that turns speech into text for the reader to consume... speaking is fast, reliable and powerful and reading is fast, reliable and powerful. On the other hand typing (especially on mobile, but even on…

On a somewhat related note: how come we, as a society, have never really adopted the daily "video log" (except for the YouTubers amongst us; the Neistat wannabes), but we have _heavily_ adopted the idea of the written journal?

writing in a journal, you put your thoughts into something. akin to a deposit in a bank.

recording yourself with a device such as a camera or microphone, the device is taking your thoughts and putting them inside of itself. implicitly, you are more vulnerable.

but times change, and with them so does access to the necessary technology. you haven’t yet reached the terminus. enjoy the ride.

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#25

Post by scl67 »

Quite literally subjectively, not objectively.

Some % of communication is non-verbal. Tone, expression, gesture. If the author of this article struggles with direct communication, it's likely because they don't (or can't) pay the necessary attention to these. So, for them text may be preferable. But most people aren't raw information processors.

I'm sure that's why emojis have become so widely embraced - it's easier to indicate tone with a picture than with text.

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#26

Post by tekacs »

movedx wrote: post #23
tekacs wrote: post #4

I think that the author is a little mixed up and is /actually/ saying that 'Reading is Objectively Superior to Listening as a Communication Method'. Writing != Reading and as someone building an app powered by dictation that turns speech into text for the reader to consume... speaking is fast, reliable and powerful and reading is fast, reliable and powerful. On the other hand typing (especially on mobile, but even on…

On a somewhat related note: how come we, as a society, have never really adopted the daily "video log" (except for the YouTubers amongst us; the Neistat wannabes), but we have _heavily_ adopted the idea of the written journal?

If you (or anyone reading this) have any interest in doing this, consider e-mailing me (e-mail in my profile) and I might have something very compelling for you. I journal like this all the time now and so does my team. :)

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#27

Post by movedx »

(It's worth noting this about the author's personality: "... as an antisocial autistic person, I am afraid that I can't bring myself to understand the importance for such things ..." - so the author is antisocial and autistic. Worth knowing when reading my thoughts, below.)

Writing and speaking have their places. It depends on context and the situation, really.

If I'm in a room with someone, and I say, "I dislike the work you've done", but it's delivered with a sarcastic tone, with a smile on my face, and a flowery movement of the arm to denote that I was joking, ideally the whole statement will be taken as a joke.

However...

If I'm in a room with someone, and I email them to say, "I dislike the work you've done", then everything else mentioned above is lost. How is this perceived by the other person? I, as the author of the statement, have to do extra work to portray meaning which can _still_ get lost:

"I dislike the work you've done! ... lol j/k ;-)"

That's not superior in this simple example, so I doubt it's going to be superior in more complex examples.

So I would ask the author this: why do we attend courts to solve complex legal matters? Why not do it entirely in writing? Would that not allow the highly educated, skilled labour that supports the legal system to "scale" better? Could a judge now not handle many cases at once versus having their time pinned to a physical location in which one case can be heard at a time?

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#28

Post by wholinator2 »

ripe wrote: post #17
paulpauper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

listening is good for multitasking . both formats have pros and cons. you can listen to a book in the car for example.

If the material isn't important to me, then maybe casual listening will work. But if I need to follow closely and understand, then audio is terrible. If I miss a word or mis-parse a sentence, I can't rescan. I would much rather read than listen.

I find when trying to listen and focus that the back and forward (mostly back) buttons are indispensible and that having them set to a custom length for my attention span and typical concentration loss helps immensely.

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#29

Post by xeonmc »

hotnfresh wrote: post #14
paulpauper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

listening is good for multitasking . both formats have pros and cons. you can listen to a book in the car for example.

Listening requires so much focus from me that if I try to multitask I’ll just realize, after a span of seconds to minutes, that I’ve not heard a single word that was said. It’ll happen again as soon as I pick the multitasking back up. May as well read or watch a video. Same focus required either way. Though I do think I’m unusual. Basically can’t enjoy podcasts the way most people do, which is a bummer. In hindsight,…

Like Feynman once discovered how different people have different processing architectures, just from the simple act of counting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4y0EUlU-Y

Re: Writing Is Objectively Superior to Speaking as a Communication Method (2020)

#30

Post by vlark »

movedx wrote: post #23
tekacs wrote: post #4

I think that the author is a little mixed up and is /actually/ saying that 'Reading is Objectively Superior to Listening as a Communication Method'. Writing != Reading and as someone building an app powered by dictation that turns speech into text for the reader to consume... speaking is fast, reliable and powerful and reading is fast, reliable and powerful. On the other hand typing (especially on mobile, but even on…

On a somewhat related note: how come we, as a society, have never really adopted the daily "video log" (except for the YouTubers amongst us; the Neistat wannabes), but we have _heavily_ adopted the idea of the written journal?

Writing is cheap, portable, and available to anyone who can produce and process written script; the poorest child in the poorest country can be taught to write their ideas in a journal. Video is expensive: not just the personal device & storage account, but the entire infrastructure to support uploading, storing, and maintaining an always-accessible archive. It is also difficult to revisit video to search for previous ideas and thoughts, etc. Text is easy to index and search both in digital and analog formats (at least, if one gives forethought to indexing one's journals during or shortly after writing a journal entry).
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