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Comment by edgarvaldes | Hacker News Reader

Not so sure. It implies that a bad communicator can't be an expert at anything.

This is my take. As an autistic individual, I struggle a lot with communication in general, especially speaking in-person as opposed to typing slowly and carefully like I am doing now.

No matter how well I understand something, my ability to relay that information effectively to another individual will always be another matter entirely. It's true that I can't explain something I don't understand, but it doesn't logically follow that I only truly understand something if I can explain it.

I think a little piece of that idiom is left out for the sake of making it a good sound bite. An expert can explain something to an eager listener. Would you be able to explain something you're an expert in to a patient lay person who actually listened and tried to ask the best questions they could?

It is an entirely different skill to educate someone with your expertise when you don't get their feedback (tv, radio, youtube) or when they don't want to learn (classroom teacher, office politics around bean counters). Those are two kinds of education and they are important skills all on their own but are in no way tied to other kinds of technical expertise.

If we were both working on a project that needed your and my expertise. If I understood that you had different sensibilities about social norms. If I respected those while asking questions about parts of your explanation I didn't understand. Would you be able to explain a detailed topic to me?

Yes. I can answer questions far more easily than I can coherently give an impromptu explanation of a complex topic on which I am something of an expert.

Even if the listener knows little to nothing about the subject, being eager to understand and asking questions while respecting my sensibilities, however realistic that expectation may be, makes all the difference for me.

One interesting thing about most communication is the implied context. It is no slight against you, but based on what you said here you think differently than others and you will imply different contexts.

I know of no easy answer but I have met people like this and seen them succeed. I hope you're able to successfuly wrangle this extra complexity that the neurotypical will foist upon you and not even understand that they've done it.

Thank you for listening and understanding. :)

Agree. Another thing I notice in this thread is that the implied context is a professional environment where you are expected to showcase your expertise to other teammates, colleagues, etc. As if solitary people, masters of their craft, could not exist in isolation.

This. Many arguments ignore this implication or commit other logical fallacies.

I sense some self-selection that experts tend to be decent communicators, at least in some mediums.

How would anyone know they are an expert if they can’t make themselves understood?

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