🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20964@crg5.UUCP> szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo) writes:
>In article <WEX.91Jan14150916@dali.pws.bull.com> wex@dali.pws.bull.com (Der Grouch) writes:
>>  [I write]
>>   ...Emotional interaction is ad hominem and gets in the way of finding the
>>   truth or achieving technical goals.
>>
>>This is a typical rationalist overgeneralization.  You will find that even
>>supposedly logical and rational persons benefit from emotional content to
>>communication.  For example, how do you know which of your coworkers'
>>objections are the most serious?  You read their body language, hear their
>>tone of voice, etc.  This is as true for any technical example you care to
>>bring forward as it is for the sales interactions you disparage.
>
>For a technical discussion, I find the most serious objections by
>looking at the most serious evidence put forward to support those objections.
>If by "serious" you mean which coworker does not *like* the proposal 
>emotionally, it may be of interest to certain parties to communicate that
>emotion, but it is not in the interest of the group as a whole and will
>lead to a political rather than technical solution.  Furthermore, the
>emotional communication diverts attention from the technical communication,
>leading to even poorer results.

	This discussion brings several points to [my] mind:

	1) Technologically superior solutions can be scuttled by politics,
	   so the politics must be taken into account in a successful solution.

	2) Making non-explicit communications explicit benefits a group 
	   discussion, especially in an inter-cultural environment.

	3) Forcing communications into a writtten mode has the beneficial 
	   effect of encouraging people to be explicit (c.f. smiley faces).

	4) Some persons have difficulty with the verbal mode of communication,
	   and have difficulty functioning in such an environment. How can
	   a group accomodate/benefit from such persons?




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Orville R. Weyrich, Jr., Ph.D.                   Certified Systems Professional
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