Quick description of a pattern I have that can muddle communication.
“So I’ve been mulling over this idea, and my original thoughts have changed a lot after I read the article, but not because of what the article was trying to persuade me of …”
Genera Pattern: There is a concrete thing I want to talk about (a new idea - ???). I don’t tell what it is, I merely provide a placeholder reference for it (“this idea”). Before I explain it, I begin applying a bunch of modifiers (typically by giving a lot of context “This idea is a new take on a domain I’ve previously had thoughts on” “there was an article involved in changing my mind” “that article wasn’t the direct cause of the mind change”)
This confuses a lot of people. My guess is that interpreting statements like this require a lot more working memory. If introduce the main subject, and then modify it, people can “mentally modify” the subject as I go along. If I don’t give them the subject, they need to store a stack of modifiers, wait until I get to the subject, and then apply all those modifiers they’ve been storing.
I notice I do this most when I expect the listener will have a negative gut reaction to the subject, and I’m trying to preemptively do a bunch of explanation before introducing it.
Yep, I notice this sometimes when other people are doing it. I don’t notice myself doing it, but that’s probably because it’s easier to notice from the receiving end.
In writing, it makes me bounce off. (There are many posts competing for my attention, so if the first few sentences fail to say anything interesting, my brain assumes that your post is not competitive and moves on.) In speech, it makes me get frustrated with the speaker. If it’s in speech and it’s an interruption, that’s especially bad, because it’s displacing working memory from whatever I was doing before.
Quick description of a pattern I have that can muddle communication.
“So I’ve been mulling over this idea, and my original thoughts have changed a lot after I read the article, but not because of what the article was trying to persuade me of …”
Genera Pattern: There is a concrete thing I want to talk about (a new idea - ???). I don’t tell what it is, I merely provide a placeholder reference for it (“this idea”). Before I explain it, I begin applying a bunch of modifiers (typically by giving a lot of context “This idea is a new take on a domain I’ve previously had thoughts on” “there was an article involved in changing my mind” “that article wasn’t the direct cause of the mind change”)
This confuses a lot of people. My guess is that interpreting statements like this require a lot more working memory. If introduce the main subject, and then modify it, people can “mentally modify” the subject as I go along. If I don’t give them the subject, they need to store a stack of modifiers, wait until I get to the subject, and then apply all those modifiers they’ve been storing.
I notice I do this most when I expect the listener will have a negative gut reaction to the subject, and I’m trying to preemptively do a bunch of explanation before introducing it.
Anyone notice anything similar?
Yep, I notice this sometimes when other people are doing it. I don’t notice myself doing it, but that’s probably because it’s easier to notice from the receiving end.
In writing, it makes me bounce off. (There are many posts competing for my attention, so if the first few sentences fail to say anything interesting, my brain assumes that your post is not competitive and moves on.) In speech, it makes me get frustrated with the speaker. If it’s in speech and it’s an interruption, that’s especially bad, because it’s displacing working memory from whatever I was doing before.
I also do this a lot, and think it’s not always a mistake, but I agree that it imposes significant cognitive burden on my conversational partner.
Do you also do it as a preemptive move like I described, or for other reasons?