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Comment by jeroen94704 | Hacker News Reader

Definitely got a chuckle out of this one.

However, I think the message should be not be (as many engineers may think) that non-engineers are unable to grasp basic technical facts, but rather that engineers are lousy communicators.

Success in business depends on effective communication, especially between people working in disparate specialist fields. Being able to adjust how you explain a subject to the knowledge level of your audience is, unfortunately, a skill that is not commonplace amongst (software) engineers.

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I'm a Presales Engineer, and a big part of my responsibility is to translate what engineers are saying into something customers can understand, and vice versa. Over the past 4+ years I've been at this job, I have come to realize that this is a very, very rare skill. I don't think it has much to do with being able to communicate (English isn't even my native language!), but rather being able to think in abstract terms and recognize patterns among different ideas.

One neat trick I learned over the course of my career when talking to non-engineers is to use analogies, especially car-related ones. For example, trying to explain a named user licensing model to someone who has never dealt with software licensing before will be a nightmare. But if you say "it's like having assigned parking spaces, where every parking space is assigned to an individual," people just get it. Whereas an engineer will describe how the model works from a software perspective, and the non-tech person will just bang their head against a wall thinking themselves as stupid.

Very interesting advice re the car analogies. Thank you.

It seems that you are the character in Office Space* that had to madly defend his job to the two Bobs. In my real world development experience, I find that you are right about the rarity of your skill, and am always thankful when someone around me has it.

* http://www.llakomy.com/Projects/flashvideo/office-space/tom-...

I don't think you understood that scene from Office Space correctly.

In my opinion it was supposed to be ironic. He is supposed to be communicator but he can't communicate his importance and he is showing very bad communication skills. After all it was taken out of context.

Nice - I'll add this one to my bag-o-tricks.

Yes, analogies can work very well.

Actually, come to think of it, TFA provides some good ones. If a customer has contradictory requirements, just tell them they're asking for a line that is red and green at the same time.

You are absolutely correct. I spend my day solving problems in software and not converting what's in my head to English that a non-software problem solver will understand. So when I have to do the latter, it takes time.

Funny thing is, this goes both ways-- Mr. MBA also doesn't know how to explain a subject with which he is intimately familiar in a manner friendly to people without his knowledge. Yet, anyone who doesn't grasp his latest master plan must be an idiot.

Stereotypically speaking, I find that most techs tend to have a bit more empathy when it comes to explaining things than the business people have.

If you are in charge of widget production, you should absolutely understand the basics of widget production. Don't blame the widget-specialists you have hired to produce widgets if you are not putting forth any significant effort into understanding your own business.

We should have specialists in communication, and pay them a bucketload. They could also learn all those people skills. They'll effectively be managing the projects, so we can call them the project managers.

Would that solve the problem?

Well, unless the project manager is a "professional" as in the article, yes, it would solve the problem.

No, because they are not technical specialists, and they rely on the technical people to tell them what is and is not feasible, and why, and how much effort something requires.

The author is clearly a good communicator, even then he can be frustrated by coworkers who dismiss what he has to say because of the stereotype that engineers are lousy communicators.

I dont even think it's a case of pitching to a given knowledge level, it's a question of understanding what is important to the other person and expressing yourself in terms that makes sense in that context.

The article is written in such a way as to highlight Smith's dismay and frustration due to his colleagues' questions and suggestions. As a reader you are left with no idea why the Redroot does not see that a line cannot be red and green at the same time.

In practice this is exactly the bridge that Smith must cross otherwise the meeting ends in disaster. To do this it's not just a case of speaking in simple terms (though this is often effective), it's a case of figuring out what the other people will consider to be 'simple', in practice this /could/ be something quite complicated - especially to Smith since he is not used to thinking in this way.

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