Un answered Questions

[shyamwestwind]

Hi Everyone
I find it very very irritating to hear a software techie brush you off with a "more intelligent than thou" respons to any question you might ask about what project he or she is working on.
Though I might not be a qualified software techie, I am sure I am intelligent enough to understand atleast the brim levels of theses technologies.
I ask a techie what his project is, he 'll say its a project for the banking sector or hospitality sector or whatever. Ok, thats fine, but what exactly is he developing" ? Their answer is a brush off - its complicated etc etc
Have any of you talked to a techie about what he's doing ?
It would be interesting to know the replies you got !!!! Unless ......... maybe you are a techie yourself.

[JohnG]

Hi Shyam,

You might have guessed that I am (and was) a techie.

I used to give similar evasive answers myself at one time (and still do), but being pressed for more detail might say "D channel protocol analysis for call set up and clear down of unrestricted B channel data calls between Germany and France", or "lecturing on the use of a single B channel for real time video conferencing using CCITT H.320 via GAN over Inmarsat 3 satellites".

Mostly it didn't help, however precisely it described what I did.
Does it help?
JohnG.

[JazzCat]

Now Shyam, if you understood what John just said you will understand that these techies aren't giving you the brush-off, or the 'I'm smarter than you' snooty bit. They simply know you aren't going to understand it unless you are an equal in their field of expertise. And, many of them simply do not know how to express themselves in layman's terms. It's not an insult.

I'm sure if you started speaking to them in technical musical terms.... using all the Italian musical terms, they wouldn't understand you either. You wouldn't say to a non musician "This passage should be played soave & pianissimo." You would say, "This section of the song should be played smoothly and very softly." Right?

[JohnG]

The trouble is that for many of the things I worked on back then there weren't alternate names. e.g. H.320, this is the Wikipedia brief explanation of what it is:

H.320 is an umbrella recommendation by the ITU-T for running Multimedia (Audio/Video/Data) over ISDN based networks. The main protocols in this suite are H.221, H.230, H.242, audio codecs such as G.711 and G.723, and video codecs such as H.261 and H.263.

So what I gave was the simple version.

If you'd like an explanation of the various H and G series standards just ask away. Although I am a bit rusty after not teaching them for a few years, but I'll give it a shot! We used G.711 and H.261.

Just kidding,
JohnG.

In retrospect I could have said that I was teaching people who would equip journalists with the necessary hardware to allow them to send live video footage from places where there was no available telephone network, via the Inmarsat series 3 satellites. (Yea, the reporters you see on TV filing video reports back from places like Afghanistan.) I put together the first courses that taught people how to do that back in 2001. Then I did a course on how to use broadband via the Thuraya satellite.

After careful consideration I think I may delete this post!

[shyamwestwind]

OK, OK, OK, ..... I cannot understand all that jargon, but I'm not that ignorant not to understand a simple description. JohnG could give an understandable description of what his project was ........... is that so difficult for anyone to do ? Like JohnG said, there might not be appropriate names to explain technical stuff, but one should try to explain things in a simple way, instead of brushing someone off or putting on that " cleverer than thou" smirk on their faces.
This reminds me of my question to many religious leaders, the Christian Priest, the Temple Purohit, or the Islamic Mullah about why God was cruel to me. I was stricken with polio at the age of 3 and had retinal uviitis at the age of 17 and I couldnt help but wonder why a lame boy could not have been given normal eyesight to see where he was reading. The answer from all these wise men was always ............. "God works in His mysterious ways and He knows what is good for me and He has his own plans" They had no ideas about what His plans were and I'm still groping for an answer.

[Emerald Midi]

The simple truth is Shyam the religious "experts" you spoke to either didn't understand or were incapable of explaining. A Buddhist might suggest it's all to do with Karma.

Anyway, to your actual point.

I agree with you, some techies do give the old brush off when dealing with someone they feel might not understand where they're coming from....but my feeling is if someone has enough interest to ask in the first place then the techie should at least try and explain in layman terms.

[Tubbs]

I just woudn't ask them Shyam, if it was something i was interested in i would learn about it myself to the best of my ability. If it can't be explained in laymans terms then they are not really "Experts". To understand something you have to be able to decipher it and explain in other ways.

I know the "Know all type" you talk about, i just wouldn't give them the satisfaction to splurt out all the so called "Tech Jargon"...hence not asking these types.....most of em couldn't change a lightbulb!!

As our JohnG would say....just my 2d worth.

[Emerald Midi]

Good point Gerry. My experience is some techies are a bit more considerate than others and will cheerfully go over stuff for us "commonplace" folks in a way that makes sense (by and large) to us. But there are others who basically couldn't be bothered and these are the ones I tend to steer clear of.

[shyamwestwind]

Pat, you're right about the Budhists and Karma . . . I'm sure that would be the way they'd explain the reasons- FATE !! I'm reall very fascinated with Budhism - seems such a peaceful religion in the midst of the chaos of today.
Gerry It's interesting that you mentioned about some techies not being capable of changing a light bulb. I still remember a techie and his family stuck on the road with a flat and he was seen staring at the tyre not knowing what to do. My daughter came to his rescue and put on the stepney and sent him on his way.

[oldsage]

Hi Shyam !! these techies are just like politicians!! if they dont know,or dont want you to know,they will waffle on about nothing,totally confusing you and themselves!! "the light over a mountain is best viewed with your own eyes"

[Emerald Midi]

May 20, 2009 18:44:12 GMT shyamwestwind said:

I still remember a techie and his family stuck on the road with a flat and he was seen staring at the tyre not knowing what to do. My daughter came to his rescue and put on the stepney and sent him on his way.

I have always said that even (some) techies are human, too ;D ;D

[weegeo]

It`s hard to defend such `techies` as a techie of sorts myself [telecomunications and satellite] i would sometimes make my answers quite technical but only if i was talking to someone that had the same understanding as myself and never to someone that didn`t have the technical know how. I have always enjoyed sharing my limited knowledge with anyone that is interested

weegeo----------- in his corner watching the stars go by lol

[JazzCat]

As I said before Shyam, and I will say it all by itself so it isn't glossed over.

Some people just do NOT know how to explain something in layman's terms.

Not every techie existing is out to make you feel like a lower life form.

[JohnG]

Actually Shyam,

You're quite right. Any techie "should" be able to describe in layman's terms what they are doing. Not doing so is either IMHO a sign of (a) laziness, (b) arrogance, (c) ignorance, or (d) a simple inability to make the jump from their techie world to the ordinary world. They are so used to talking the detail with colleagues that they don't have the language to make a translation.

As JazzCat has just said. It's not necessarily that they think of you as being inferior in some way.

JohnG.

[JC]

I thought you were talking about Trekkies!! ;D