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

koshka.love

31–40 of 49 posts

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

#31
post #8

It is if you're a smart person. The bottom 70% of the IQ range has a really hard time with fast reading comprehension. Even people in white collar jobs. It's not something people admit, they even hide it, but it's something you can't help but notice.

there is a reason the verbal part of the SATs used to be harder than math, and analogies were removed. Reading comprehension is hard.

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

#32
post #23
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?

An important part of journaling is the composition process. I have to explicitly structure a thought for it to make any sense in a written form. This is a slow, intentional process. I've had one-page journal entries take over an hour to compose and write, though I usually average 20 minutes per page.

In the limited number of attempts I've tried with audio journaling, it always comes across as stream-of-consciousness. I like to think out loud already, so I end up removing my anchor -- the written document -- and just chase one thought after another after another. I don't see how I'd be able to maintain the quality of my journal (or other written works) if I didn't have my easily re-referenced existing document.

Have you had success with audio/video journals? Any tips?

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

#33
Whenever I say something serious I wonder if it wasn’t better to just record it. When I have a conversation with a vendor or investor, and don’t record it, I feel like I have to repeat myself again and again if we go with another vendor or investor, and all that effort where it went awesome is now useless.

And then write it down, and summarize it in a tree structure. So I can simply link to the final result instead of talking and repeating everything

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

#35
The written word may be superior to speech in conveying information efficiently, but only if you assume that the recipient is willing and capable of engaging with the medium. Unfortunately, that does not apply to most people you will encounter. A significant majority of people will struggle with pieces of text longer than a couple of sentences while having no trouble at all receiving the same information verbally. That is just the world we live in, and thus, it would be pragmatic to opt for verbal communication unless you know your audience can handle communicating via text.

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

#37
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

An important part of journaling is the composition process. I have to explicitly structure a thought for it to make any sense in a written form. This is a slow, intentional process. I've had one-page journal entries take over an hour to compose and write, though I usually average 20 minutes per page. In the limited number of attempts I've tried with audio journaling, it always comes across as stream-of-consciousness.…

I use this workflow for capturing design ideas: phone voice recorder -> whisper -> hand cleanup -> outline or second draft, depending where I am in the problem space. I have a major to-do to get a llm set up to do a first cleanup pass but haven’t had the urge since I got the first parts working. I could also stand to write automation glue to replace some shell history but it functions remarkably well for me.

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

#38
post #30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 previou…

Audio didn’t really catch on for journaling either; save podcasters. It’s reasonably easy to store for most of us on this platform. For most people it has the same search problem.

I used to take audio notes in the car, because it’s easy to do. But I never went back and listened. Maybe if it could be transcribed reasonably well it would work out. Some dictate to their phones quite a bit these days.

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

#39
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…

I think you're pedantically separating the sending and the receiving and calling receiving "communication," while sending is not. This is clearly not the case. Further, the author writes about "written communication," which implies the entire send/receive chain. You must be "mixed up," as you put it.

So maybe writing is terrible if both actors are in bad faith and no one bothers trying to understand or steel man.

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

#40
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 previou…

Audio didn’t really catch on for journaling either; save podcasters. It’s reasonably easy to store for most of us on this platform. For most people it has the same search problem. I used to take audio notes in the car, because it’s easy to do. But I never went back and listened. Maybe if it could be transcribed reasonably well it would work out. Some dictate to their phones quite a bit these days.

And dictating to a device that can provide accurate transcription such as an AI-enabled virtual assistant is just another way to get to the end product of a searchable, indexable digital text. I'd count this as keeping a written journal. Sure, the price of entry is higher than a pencil and a pad of newsprint paper, but it's written text.
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