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Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

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Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#31

Post by quacked »

logicalmonster wrote: post #22
wly_cdgr wrote: post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

I don't want to get political here, but strictly speaking on communication, Donald Trump was one of the best political communicators in recent history for the ideas he wanted to emphasize to a large audience. He kept his concepts very simple, he didn't use complex language that might confuse or alienate his audience, he used funny and memorable nicknames to keep your attention, he kept things visual with a lot of pro…

I tend to ignore "official news" and got most of my Donald Trump speeches as highlights and clips filtered through my largely left-wing circle of friends and family. From what I saw, he was a complete buffoon.

Then one day my fiancee's father was watching a long-form "debate" or something that included Trump. I was astonished at how personable and clear his communication style was, and understood why so many people were so taken by his campaign's ideas and rhetoric.

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#32

Post by karaterobot »

Good... article?

It's ironic that he's communicating this on Twitter, a medium where nuance is particularly hard to convey, and where the audience is especially prone to missing it. I'm sure that's not lost on him.

One thing to note: the part about it being less of a problem when people misunderstand an article on HN than if they misunderstand a business communication made me think of (one time) when the CEO of our company defined a new strategy based on an article on Product Lead Growth he'd read. Or rather evidently misread, since he neglected the most important parts. My conclusion is that these things are interrelated, and mistakes can compound.

I really do think that reading comprehension is one of those things everybody (especially STEM people) assume they're good at, but usually they're actually just terrible at it, and supremely confident about that. The same goes with clear writing, which (to me) is even harder.

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#33

Post by chubot »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #4
wly_cdgr wrote: post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

Jokes aside it's not that nuance doesn't work at scale. It's that many people whose experience is mainly with short-range communication fail to realize or underappreciate that you need different techniques to communicate nuance from a large distance than they are accustomed to using up close. Think about painting.

Another analogy is drumming: When you're in a small room, you can play many notes, e.g. detail on the hi-hat, snare, whatever.

In a large room with big speakers, that's all lost and you're basically a backbeat ...

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#34

Post by dekhn »

I keep most of my points extremely simple and avoid complex language unless I'm with a group of people whom I trust to understand subtlety. If you look at the history of my comments, you can see people often completely misunderstand what I say, often attributing the opposite opinion to the one I hold (or stated; I often don't state my personal opinion).

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#35

Post by guerrilla »

karaterobot wrote: post #32

Good... article? It's ironic that he's communicating this on Twitter, a medium where nuance is particularly hard to convey, and where the audience is especially prone to missing it. I'm sure that's not lost on him. One thing to note: the part about it being less of a problem when people misunderstand an article on HN than if they misunderstand a business communication made me think of (one time) when the CEO of our c…

> where nuance is particularly hard to convey

It's not just not easy to convey there, it's not tolerated by a large part of the population there.

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#37

Post by tapas73 »

steelstraw wrote: post #12

Does that explain the level of nuance around public health policy? Covid policy for example. Some countries take into account natural immunity (more nuance). Others don't and simply require everyone to be vaccinated regardless (less nuance). Some recommend or even require kids to get the Covid vaccine (less nuance - everyone take it), other countries recommend against (more nuance - some should, some shouldn't). They…

It extends to other policies as well

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#38

Post by TigeriusKirk »

orzig wrote: post #14
funstuff007 wrote: post #9

IIRC Jonn Kerry's campaign for President was plagued by too much nuance in both his and the campaign's communications. And the Romney critique as the "flipping Mormon" can also be seen as a rejection of nuance.

I don’t disagree, but an important distinction relative to the OP is that political communication is in an overtly adversarial environment. It’s a whole other ballgame.

I suspect "overtly adversarial environment" applies to a large chunk of all communication. Perhaps even most. People will willfully interpret any communication to suit their own agendas.

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#39

Post by blondin »

wrs wrote: post #11
bradleyjg wrote: post #8

Flat orgs are very popular right now, but isn’t it a huge benefit of a hierarchical organization with subparts that rather than the President of Azure getting on a VTC and telling the whole division that the goal is velocity he can explain to his reports (a small group) that they need velocity with reliability and they can explain to their reports (more small groups) and so on and so forth? Yes, nuanced comms don’t s…

One reason is that non-scaled comms suffer from “telephone game”. If you do it like you’re saying, then go down 3-4 levels in the hierarchy and check what people are hearing, it will have mutated away from anything you originally said. Sometimes to get everyone aligned (as best you can) you have to give everyone the same message at the same time — but it has to be a simple message.

i agree with what you are pointing out.

but i wonder why non-scaled communication (if we can also call it that) works in the military?

Re: Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale

#40

Post by FooBarBizBazz »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

Really I was expecting a Goebbels reference by now.

Sadly, "Well, we're all human, and humans are complicated" doesn't propagate. "Kill the $X" does.

Just look at recent memes. It's terrifying. They defy even logic, yet they work.

I wonder if "propaganda" and "propagate" have similar word roots.

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