this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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I can only imagine the difference it would make if instead of telling about your idea you could show it

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[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

That's compatible with information theory. You have a piece of information, the moment you encode it (turn your idea into words) that piece of information is transposed to a little different piece of information, then the channel of transportation adds a bit of noise (depends on the environment, most often literal background noise), and then the receiver decodes the to a different piece of information (turn your words into an idea of their own).

Understanding this concept is an important communication skill. Information theory gives a bunch of tools to minimize the difference between the idea in your head and the perception of the idea by your peer.

  • You can add redundancy, aka say the same thing twice in a slightly different way.
  • Use questions to validate your understanding.
  • Have your peer use their own words.
  • Use a different encoding, aka draw a picture, a diagram, or use gestures instead of using language to communicate
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Hence why Dennis pulls out a giant paper whiteboard to explain his D.E.N.N.I.S. system