[thelist] RE: How to Talk Down to the Client

[Steven Streight]

Only stupid people talk "down" to anyone, even
children deserve better than "down" ("dumb downed")
talking. I even object to all forms of "baby talk" goo
goo ga ga crap, it's discredited by child
psychologists.

If you really understand something, you can put it
into simple terms as well as advanced terms. 

If you only know how to describe it in highly
technical language, then you're stupid, and don't
actually know it like you assume you do.

Einstein, Plato, Freud, Tim Berners-Lee, etc. knew how
to put concepts into very simple terms anyone could
understand.

No matter how smart you supposedly are, when you hear
a technical thing described in simple analogies and
down home illustrations ("a web server is like a
...."), you can be amazed at how you now understand it
a little better.

You can start elementary levelish and rapidly proceed
to more complex aspects, depending on your audience,
by defining terms and relating new ideas to already
known ideas, as you go along.

If tech people are impatient with simple explanations,
they're living in an ivory tower of ignorance. If you
really love something, you like hearing it described
in a multitude of ways, from childish to metaphysical.

When it doubt, flesh it out, ie, make it super easy to
understand.

The smart people, who don't "need" simple
explanations, will still learn something---how to
explain what they know in simple terms.


=====
Steven Streight
Web Usability Analyst/Content Writer

http://www.vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com
http://www.streightsite.blogspot.com
http://www.arttestexplosion.blogspot.com
EMAIL: vaspersthegrate at yahoo.com


		
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