---- START NEW MESSAGE --- Received: from cherry.ease.lsoft.com [209.119.0.109] by dpmail10.doteasy.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-8.05) id A1A83580196; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 07:00:56 -0800 Received: from PEAR.EASE.LSOFT.COM (209.119.0.19) by cherry.ease.lsoft.com (LSMTP for Digital Unix v1.1b) with SMTP id <10.00CC4E1F@cherry.ease.lsoft.com>; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:00:43 -0500 Received: from MITVMA.MIT.EDU by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8e) with spool id 9688 for PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:00:37 -0500 Received: from MITVMA (NJE origin SMTP@MITVMA) by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (LMail V1.2d/1.8d) with BSMTP id 0635; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:59:25 -0500 Received: from mail.california.com [209.3.224.15] by mitvma.mit.edu (IBM VM SMTP Level 430) via TCP with SMTP ; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:59:24 EST X-Warning: mitvma.mit.edu: Host mail.california.com claimed to be california.com Received: from [66.81.77.192] (HELO DELL) by california.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.1.5) with SMTP id 62337337 for PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 06:59:25 -0800 References: <10B80D7CA3B9D611977F00508B6A77BF0FDF1D@RHEIN> X-Mailer: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 06:59:25 -0800 Reply-To: pic microcontroller discussion list Sender: pic microcontroller discussion list From: Bob Barr Organization: Consultant Subject: Re: [PIC:] Process To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU In-Reply-To: <10B80D7CA3B9D611977F00508B6A77BF0FDF1D@RHEIN> Precedence: list X-RCPT-TO: Status: U X-UIDL: 371856511 On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 11:54:24 +0100, Simon Davies wrote: >Perfectly true in my experience - you must be expecting that the other >person is going to produce the answer to your problem even if you actually >do it yourself. Explaining it to the receptionist just doesn't work... > You might be surprised how well that actually does work. The key to this technique working is the listener's interest rather than his expertise. On occasion, I've tried teaching non-technical coworkers how some piece of problem code worked. When they were trying to understand what I was telling them (or at least feigning interest), I found that any fuzzy thinking on my part became immediately obvious. This didn't always pinpoint the solution but it generally pointed me toward the problem I was trying to solve. I had no expectation that they would be able to produce the solution. All I needed was for them to try to understand what I was explaining. Regards, Bob -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body .