What makes explaining ideas or concepts to people difficult, is that my internal “knowledge” world is a spatial or visual place.
So communicating ideas takes it from this spatial world of information, and translates it into a linear string.
Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed about how to accommodate this spatial idea, full of complex relationships, and flatten it into a linear message.
If you want someone else to inhabit this world of yours, communication is the tool is get this done.
But sometimes it’s like, where do you start?
Having a good understanding of the audience/interlocutor is incredibly helpful for framing proper context. But even then it’s difficult, especially if it’s a casual conversation.
I feel like to properly articulate ideas requires a 60 second buffer to examine the idea and compress it properly into a coherent string of logical relationships before you begin communicating.
Which is why I always prefer writing my ideas out, because to me it’s akin to sketching, fleshing out the contours and outlining the substance before drawing hardened lines around core ideas, erasing superfluous strokes, and shading and coloring where necessary. Properly writing out ideas is very much like drawing in this regard.
So speaking becomes increasingly difficult with the complexity of the idea. But the thing is, most significant ideas are situated in this spatial place. So to truly communicate the significance of where it’s situated consistently seems like an overwhelming task.
In fact, it makes me just not want to talk. I end up at a loss for words.
I think if my brain processed faster, I’d be able to optimize this compression and simplification process.
Like someone asks you something, or you’re talking about something, and as you speak you keep having to stop and mentally restart again and again because accommodating all the relevant information into a simple linear message seems to be overwhelming? It’s like compressing a 3D image into a 1D signal, whatever that means.
Does this make sense?
William Dare 