Some little thoughts

[brainwane]

I wonder whether area code redlining was a thing (a very hasty search does not turn up anything) stopping people in different neighborhoods from easily talking with each other across racial lines.

Maybe TNG : Ramayana : DS9 :: Mahabharata? And Data is a bit like Hanuman and Odo is a bit like Karna.... But Picard : Rama :: Sisko : ?

In an era of very low media/consumer choice and availability, Book Of The Month and monthly record subscription clubs were popular. The rise of subscription box services comes as consumers have so much choice and availability that we desire better discoverability and curation for that choice. And book clubs also provide some of the same value; "this is the book we're reading" also helps the reader say no to other new books (for now) and ignore the rest of the To Be Read pile.

Some people are actually fine, most of the time, with probabilistic communication and not being certain that they're hearing or being heard properly. This is tough for me to grasp.

Comments

[lilysea]

What is probabilistic communication?

[brainwane]

Good question. I mean .... Let's say there is deterministic communication, where both sides only consider the transaction a success if the speaker and recipient are both pretty sure the recipient has received the message, and they usually check whether success is likely, and if it seems unlikely, then that's a problem that needs fixing. And if the speaker starts to say something, and then gets interrupted, speaker or recipient notice that and prioritize coming back to that interrupted communication once the interruption is finished/put aside. And so, once a thing is said and understood, repetition does not happen much, or causes annoyance when it does happen.

And then there is probabilistic communication, where it's more ok if some individual sentences/questions get dropped/misunderstood/interrupted and never followed up on/answered, because over time the group will collectively remember/repeat stuff and ... I guess the state of everyone's head will be eventually consistent.

I'm sure there are linguistics concepts including Gricean maxims that apply to all this.

[elysdir]

I’m curious: is deterministic communication a special case of probabilistic communication, with the probability being particularly high?

I ask because you said “pretty sure” and “likely” in the description of deterministic communication.

…Or is the focus here more on intent and preference than on the likelihood of information being successfully transferred?

[brainwane]

I don't know, sorry. I am writing pretty quickly here and not being precise in my diction.

[brainwane]

Probably intent, with big side effects on cadence, transaction length, communication type, chances of things falling through the cracks, etc.

[seekingferret]

There is this weird thing that is possibly related where my new subordinate who I am trying to train to be a useful engineer someday will nod or otherwise signal understanding after I explain something... and then I will explicitly ask him if he understands what I said and he'll say no.

[brainwane]

Oh hey, I have run into the nod-of-acknowlegment that looks very similar to the nod-of-understanding before! A frustrating impedance mismatch; sympathies.

[seekingferret]

Hmm... I hadn't really processed it that way before. I've been reading it as areluctance to admit not knowing/understanding something because of perceived lack of job security. Maybe you're right. Either way, damnit, I need him to start admitting when he needs more explanation or he won't learn.

[brainwane]

You open to advice on this?

[seekingferret]

Sure

[wohali]

Even worse, I learned while living in Japan that "Hai!" (yes) doesn't necessarily mean "Yes, I agree with you," but can also mean "Yes, I heard that you said something just now that I may or may not have understood!"

This lead to some very confusing conversations with the team I was leading at the time. :(